The Day the World Went Away
by ElsaEditorial
Summary: Daryl almost lost Beth, and now that he has her back, he will stop at nothing to keep her safe. Rated M for language, violence, and smut.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I decided to try my hand at a Bethyl story, especially because the new season will begin soon without her. :(**** This story takes place right after Beth's kidnapping in season 4. I've been writing an AU 1920s Daryl/OC story, but not many people have taken to it so far, so I wanted to start this side project for something set back in the ZA. **

**Credit for the story title goes to Nine Inch Nails.**

**Please review and let me know what you think!**

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_There is a place that still remains_

_It eats the fear, it eats the pain_

_The sweetest price he'll have to pay_

_The day the whole world went away._

Daryl was exhausted. His lungs burned and his muscles screamed in protest, but he pushed himself on. He felt as though he had been running for several hours, and judging from the lightening sky that signaled dawn's approach, he probably had been. He hadn't stopped running since Beth had been taken. He couldn't stop. The white cross that had been on the back window of the car was burned into his mind.

He had passed several walkers along the way, their decaying arms reaching out for him as he ran, but he passed them by. His thoughts were only of Beth and of getting her back. She was the only thing that mattered.

Daryl knew there was a time when he would have given up on her, when he wouldn't have kept running like he was running now. Back before he knew her, and before he had begun to let her in to his life. Back when she was just another dead girl, according to her words. But she was so much more than that now. She was starting to get under his skin, and he was starting to let her. He was letting his guard down around her for the first time in a long time. And she had helped him let go of some of the demons he had been carrying his whole life. At that moment in time, she was his everything. His world. She had been ripped from him, and he wasn't going to let her go without a fight.

He thought of her innocent, wide-eyed expression when she'd realized that she was the reason he had started believing in good people again. He wished that he could continue that discussion with her now, and tell her outright that she was all that was good and pure in the world and he couldn't help seeing the world in a better light when she was around. She was like sunshine, and he wished he could have told her so. His legs threatened to give out beneath him, but he forced himself to keep going. Every step could be bringing him closer to Beth.

He heard the walkers before he saw them. It didn't sound like there were a lot of them, maybe three or four, and they were making sounds that told him they were eating something. The road took a sharp curve, and as he rounded it, the source of the sounds came into view. Two of the biters in question were devouring a body on the ground. Daryl's eyes traveled to the mess of twisted metal and glass behind their meal, and a panic flooded him as he realized that it was the remains of the car that had taken Beth. The white cross on the back window was still there, but the front of the car was crushed like a tin can into a tree. Skid marks all over the road showed how the car had swerved violently before smashing into the large tree. Another body had been thrown (or dragged) from the car a few feet away from where the first two walkers were eating, and a third ghoul was shoveling entrails from the second body into its mouth.

Daryl sprinted toward the wreck with renewed energy, quickly sending a bolt through one of the walkers' heads on his approach. He unsheathed his hunting knife and dispatched the other two. He frantically examined the partially devoured corpses on the side of the road and was met with brief relief when he saw that neither of them were Beth. He rushed to the crumpled car and peered inside one of the cracked windows.

There she was, her torso slumped across the middle console and her legs sprawled across the backseat. Her hands were zip-tied, but she held a bloody knife loosely in her grip. She was unconscious, and Daryl couldn't tell if she was breathing. The front doors of the car were completely collapsed, and the back doors appeared to be locked. He hurriedly bashed in the one of the cracked back windows and unlocked the door, wrenching it open and tossing his crossbow to the side. He grabbed Beth's limp body and pulled her to him, praying to a god he didn't even believe in that she wasn't dead.

With a huge burst of relief he felt a pulse. The side of her head was covered in dried blood, however, and Daryl knew the wound on her forehead would need stitches. Daryl quickly cut the zip ties on her wrists and held her unconscious body to his chest, holding her as tight as he dared in light of her injuries. He couldn't stop the tears from falling, and he rocked her back and forth against him as he sobbed into her hair.

* * *

Beth probably didn't weigh 100 pounds soaking wet, but she felt heavy as Daryl carried her through the woods. After running for hours and carrying her through the woods for several miles, he wasn't sure how much farther he could keep carrying her. But he knew that he had to get her somewhere safe. Now that she was back in his arms, his exhaustion was the last thing on his mind.

Dawn had broken over the horizon, which was a good thing because it allowed Daryl to see where it was going as he traipsed through the woods with Beth dangling limply in his arms. His vision was starting to blur, and he blinked hard each time it did. When the small hunting cabin came into view, he made sure to blink several times to make sure it was real. He stumbled toward it, only sure it wasn't a figment of his imagination when he stumbled onto the steps of the front porch.

He tried to slow his labored breathing as he laid Beth down on the warped wood boards of the screened in porch. He quickly approached the front door and knocked on it loudly. When no sounds of shambling dead came from inside, he pulled open the door and scooped Beth back up in his arms. He made his way inside and kicked the door shut behind him.

The cabin was dark and smelled moldy, but thankfully no smell of decaying corpses reached him. Two mismatched old couches surrounded a stone fireplace in the living room, and a tiny kitchen with a wood stove overlooked the living room area. He shuffled over to one of the couches and gently laid Beth down on one of them. He quickly strode over to the other three doors that remained closed in the small hallway of the cabin. One led to a linen closet, which was stocked with blankets, sheets, and towels, and another to the small bathroom. He took a quick breath before opening the door to what had to be the bedroom, thankfully finding it empty. A double bed was pushed against the wall with a plain chest of drawers in the corner of the room. He let loose a breath of relief and made his way into the bathroom.

After raiding the cupboard and the medicine cabinet, he found a first aid kit, but nothing to stitch Beth's wound with. He sighed in frustration and pulled the first aid kit from the cabinet. It was better than nothing. Still, he kept searching through all the cabinets in the place until he finally located a basic sewing kit in an end table drawer in the living room. The needle and thread in the kit weren't meant for stitching wounds, but they would have to do.

Daryl hurried back to the living room and looked at Beth laying on the couch, her eyes still closed but her breathing even. Her golden blonde hair fell around her, creating a bit of a curtain for her face. He took a deep breath and brushed the hair away from her face to reveal the deep cut in the corner of her forehead where she had most likely hit the center console. Daryl had never stitched up a wound before, but he knew he had to try.

He grabbed a small spray can of antiseptic from the first aid kit and doused the wound with it. He then quickly threaded the needle with the black thread, the only color of thread that had been in the simple sewing kit, and held the needle above the wound, afraid to pierce it through her skin. He frowned at himself and told himself to nut up and do it. Beth needed this wound stitched up, and he was the only one around to do it. He blinked hard and moved the needle steadily toward the wound. As he began to stitch it up, he realized that it was a lot easier than he had thought it would be. Before long, he was done. The stitches weren't pretty, but they would hold.

Daryl began inspecting Beth for other injuries. Her arms had several bruises, but looked fine. He raised her shirt to reveal a large purple bruise along her ribs, but aside from that, her torso seemed to be fine. Daryl didn't even want to think about removing her jeans, so he just settled for hoping that her legs were in okay shape.

He sighed deeply and ran a hand over his face. He couldn't believe that he had almost lost her. He felt tears stinging his eyes and he blinked them away, refusing to cry again. He took a few deep breaths to push his feelings away before standing and scooping Beth off the couch. He walked steadily to the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed. He stared at her for several long moments before tentatively laying down next to her. He wanted to move close to her, to protect her, but he didn't want to frighten her when she woke up. He settled for laying close to her on the bed and not touching her in any way.

It didn't take long for Daryl to succumb to the exhaustion that had overtaken him. Beth had almost been taken from him, but he had gotten her back. He wasn't ever letting her go again.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm so pleased with the response I got on the first chapter! I'm glad you guys are liking this story so far. Here is chapter two! Please review! :)**

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Despite how exhausted Daryl was, he found himself unable to stay asleep. He kept having dreams about the car that had taken Beth speeding away from him, and he would wake with a start and frantically check the bed next to him to make sure she was actually there. After waking from his third nightmare, he decided to give up on sleep for the present moment. He really should be keeping watch anyway.

Daryl carefully crawled off the bed, not wanting to wake Beth. His eyes felt heavy and swollen, but he felt better than he had a few hours ago when he had found this place. He watched Beth's steady, slow breathing for a few moments before wandering into the main part of the cabin and out the front door.

The position of the sun told him that it was close to midday, meaning he had been asleep off and on for five hours or so. He realized suddenly that he had no idea where they were or how far away this cabin was from the funeral home where Beth had been taken. He had run after the car for so long and had carried Beth through the woods in a state of pure exhaustion, and he was completely turned around. It wasn't like him to lose his sense of direction, and he felt frustrated by it. But Beth was here, and she was safe, and that was all that mattered.

Daryl quickly ducked back in the cabin to grab his crossbow before heading back out to explore the area around the cabin. He didn't want to go too far in case Beth woke up, but he wanted to get a grasp on where they were. He squinted off into the woods and quickly spotted the trail he had left several hours before as he walked heavy-footed toward the cabin. That told him that the road was a few miles north of the cabin, since he hadn't changed direction while carrying Beth through the woods. Daryl wandered around the back of the cabin, and his ears picked up the faint sound of a stream somewhere nearby. He wished he knew what stream it was, but without a map, he had no idea.

The road the car had traveled on was heading toward Atlanta, so he knew they were probably closer to the city than they had been at the funeral home, but he wasn't sure how close. Clearly the small cabin was quite remote, as it didn't even have much of a real road leading to it, just a faint outline of a makeshift dirt road that was now quite overgrown. There didn't appear to be any walkers nearby, and he hadn't encountered any once he had started carrying Beth. That was a good sign.

Daryl made his way back inside and began raiding the kitchen cabinets for food. He found several cans of beans and vegetables, and he decided that once Beth woke up and he was sure she was able to move around on her own, he would go out and hunt something for them to eat. For now, one of the cans would have to do. He tried the tap on the kitchen sink and was pleased to see clean water emerge from it. The cabin must have had a well on the property. He cupped his mouth to the faucet and took several deep gulps of the water before switching it back off. He began searching for a pot of some kind when he heard a gasping breath from the bedroom.

Daryl hurried to the open door of the bedroom and saw Beth attempting to sit up on the bed, her blue eyes wide and anxiously darting around the room. When her eyes landed on him, her face crumbled, and tears began to spill down her cheeks.

"Daryl?" she said, her voice cracking from lack of use.

He said nothing, but crossed the room in three strides and brought her into a tight embrace. Beth yelped from the pressure on her injured ribs, but she quickly wrapped her arms around his middle and held him in place as he attempted to jerk away. He slowly placed his arms back around her and held her against his chest. Her tears were wetting the front his shirt, but as he held her, her crying stopped.

"You found me," Beth mumbled into his shirt.

"Course I did," Daryl replied, his voice rough. Beth pulled away and he quickly released her from his grasp, awkwardly taking a step back from her. "Ran after that car and didn't stop till I found you."

Beth tentatively raised a hand to her forehead and felt the rough stitches there.

"You stitched me up?"

Daryl nodded. "My first time tryin' it, so it ain't pretty, but it had to be done."

"Thank you."

Daryl moved to sit next to her on the bed, his hands awkwardly in his lap as he looked at her with concern. "What happened? When I found you the car was completely totaled . . ."

Beth took a shuddering breath, looking as though she was about to cry again, but she swallowed hard and blinked the tears away.

"I ran up to the road like you said, but before I could find you, this car just came out of nowhere. A guy jumped out and grabbed me. I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong. He threw me down and kicked me in the stomach, and then he hit me in the head with the butt of a gun." She reached up and gingerly felt the back of her head, wincing when she felt the large lump there. "I must've passed out, and when I woke up, I was layin' in the backseat of the car with my hands tied in front of me. I dunno how long I was out, but the two guys up front didn't notice I was awake. I dunno who they were or where they were takin' me, but it couldn't have been good. I had to do something."

Beth lifted her gaze from her lap and saw the look of icy anger on Daryl's face. She swallowed again and continued.

"I realized I still had my knife on my belt, and I managed to get it free without them noticing. I waited till I felt us going around a turn and I sat up and buried the knife in the driver's throat. The last thing I remember is the car crashin' into a tree."

A few tears managed to escape her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily. "I knew the chances of me survivin' the crash were slim, but it was either that or end up wherever they were takin' me, and I knew I didn't want to end up there. I did what I had to do."

Daryl's expression was pained, and he wanted to reach out to her again, but he restrained himself.

"You did the right thing," he said gruffly. "Not lettin' them take you. You're strong, Beth."

She nodded, wiping her face again. "Did you see them? The men who took me? Did the other one survive?"

Daryl shook his head. "They probably saved you. Couple of biters were feastin' on them without any idea that you were still in the car."

Beth shuddered at the thought and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt a sick feeling of satisfaction that her kidnappers had ended in such a way, and she felt ashamed of such a thought almost immediately after. She sighed and looked around the bedroom in an attempt to focus on something else.

"Where are we?"

Daryl shrugged. "Some hunting cabin in the woods. Not sure exactly where. The road's a few miles north of here."

"You . . . you carried me that far?"

Daryl nodded and looked down at his hands. "Had to get you somewhere safe."

"Thank you," Beth said. "If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be alive right now."

"Stop," Daryl said quietly. The thought of Beth dying had crossed his mind a few times while he had chased after the car, and it pained him too much to think about. Beth gave him a smile that came out as more of a grimace.

"I'll make us somethin' to eat," he said. "There's a couple of cans of stuff in the kitchen. Thinkin' I'll go out huntin' later to get us somethin' better."

Beth nodded and made an attempt to climb off the bed, but she inhaled sharply when pain shot through her side.

"Can you help me stand?" she asked. Daryl nodded and stood from where he was seated on the bed. He delicately grasped one of her arms and put his other hand on her back, gently helping her to her feet. He removed his hands once she was standing, but stayed next to her in case she fell. Beth slowly peeled her shirt up and examined the dark bruises around her ribs.

"D'you think you broke any?" Daryl asked.

Beth took a deep breath and winced, but shook her head. "No. It doesn't feel that bad. But it certainly doesn't feel good, either."

She took a tentative step forward, limping on her still-injured ankle. Daryl quickly wrapped an arm around her to help support her weight.

"Place has got runnin' water," he said. "Gotta have a well on the property or somethin'. If you wanna clean up, bathroom's to the left."

"That sounds amazin," Beth sighed. Daryl helped her into the bathroom, and she hopped over to the sink and gave a little squeal of delight when water came out of the tap.

"I'm gonna make us somethin' to eat," Daryl muttered.

Beth nodded and glanced at herself in the mirror. She was a mess. She splashed the cold water from the sink on her face, enjoying how refreshing it felt. She glanced back at the shower behind her and decided to try the taps there, too.

"Yes!" she exclaimed as water came out of the showerhead. It was terrible water pressure and cold, but it was a running shower nonetheless. Beth closed the bathroom door behind her and began to peel the filthy clothes from her body. She noticed her skin was littered with bruises, some more severe than others, but aside from her ankle, ribs, and forehead, she seemed to be mostly okay. She limped to the shower and carefully climbed inside, gasping as the freezing water hit her skin. She grabbed the bar of soap that was already in there and began washing away days' worth of dirt, sweat, and grime. She noticed with another leap of excitement that there was a bottle of generic men's shampoo in the shower as well. She couldn't remember the last time she had washed her hair.

After she was clean (and sufficiently freezing), she climbed out of the shower, only to realize that there was no towel hanging on the towel rack next to the shower.

"Shit," she muttered, pulling open the cabinet doors beneath the sink to find no towels there, either. She sighed and opened the bathroom door a crack.

"Uh, Daryl?" she called. He was in the hallway in an instant, meeting her eyes through the crack in the door. "Are there towels around here anywhere?"

Daryl turned and opened the door to the linen closet across from the bathroom. He grabbed one of the folded towels and handed it to her through the door, his eyes trained purposefully on the floor so as not to accidentally get a peek at her.

"Thanks," she murmured, closing the door again and toweling off. She wished she had clean clothes to put on, but until she could find new ones or wash the ones she had, her current clothes would have to do. She dressed and hobbled out into the kitchen to find Daryl stirring a pot of beans over a wood stove.

"This place is nice," she commented as she looked around the room. Daryl scoffed and she shrugged. "Nicer than a lot of places, I mean."

Daryl watched her as she limped into the living room and gingerly sat on one of the couches. With the state of her ankle and ribs, she wouldn't be fit to travel for several days. He found two bowls in a cabinet and poured the beans into them, grabbing two forks as well and going out to join Beth in the living room. He sat down on the other couch and set the bowl in front of her on the coffee table. They began eating in silence, and Daryl couldn't help noticing the far off look in Beth's eyes.

"Thinkin' we should stay here at least a few days, till you're healed up," he muttered.

Beth nodded and looked up from her food, her expression a little hesitant. "What happens after I'm healed? Where will we go?"

Daryl shrugged. "Where do you want to go?"

Beth sighed, thinking about Maggie and Glenn and the other members of their group, but realistically she knew they were probably far away by now. She wanted to remain optimistic that they would find the other members of their group, but at the same time, she was so damn tired and just wanted to stay in one place for a while. She tentatively glanced at Daryl, who was watching her and waiting for her response.

"Maybe . . . I dunno, maybe we could stick around here for a while," she said softly.

"Whatever you want," Daryl replied with a nod.

"I want to find Maggie, and the others," Beth said, her voice wavering slightly. "But it's startin' to seem so unlikely that we will. And I'm so tired, Daryl. We've been runnin' from place to place for a while and I just want a place to call home. Even if it's only for a few weeks."

Daryl nodded in understanding. He looked around the cabin and gave a shrug. "Home sweet home then."

Beth smiled. Even if it was only temporary, having a place to call home made everything seem better. She just hoped they could make it last.


	3. Chapter 3

**I like this chapter. It was fun to write. Enjoy and please review! :)**

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After they finished eating, Daryl grabbed his crossbow and told Beth he was going out hunting. The thought of being alone so soon after being kidnapped made Beth feel anxious, but she knew it would be impractical to ask him to stay. The cabin didn't have much food on hand, and they needed whatever meat Daryl would be able to bring back.

"Try not to walk around on your ankle too much," he instructed her. She scoffed at him.

"I'm not gonna sit here and be useless while you're gone. I'm gonna go through all the stuff in this place and figure out what we can use. We also need some kind of perimeter alarm, so I'll see if there's anything I can use to make one."

Daryl narrowed his eyes a bit, but nodded. "I won't go far."

Beth gave him a small grateful smile. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just cleared his throat awkwardly and gave her a stiff head nod before stalking out the front door. She watched the closed door for several long moments before heaving a sigh and gingerly pulling herself to her feet. Her ribs ached and she wasn't able to put much weight on her ankle, but as she had told Daryl, she needed to make herself useful. She glanced around and hobbled toward the kitchen to start there.

The kitchen was small and only contained a refrigerator, sink, small wood stove, and a small area of counter space. She began searching through the kitchen cabinets and found a few pots and pans and other utensils, some canned food, and expired condiments. Beth decided that they should take one of the smaller cooking pots when they left this place. It would enable them to boil water to make it safe for drinking, and would allow them to more easily heat canned foods over a fire.

Beth rifled through the utensil drawer and found a large Swiss army knife. She grinned as she flipped it open, noting that the larger blade was about three inches long and quite sharp. It also had a smaller blade, a corkscrew, a can opener, a file, some tiny scissors, and even a small magnifying glass.

"Score," she murmured to herself, closing the contraption and slipping it into her pocket. She continued to rummage around and gave a pleased hum when she found a bottle of cheap whiskey shoved in the back of one of the cabinets. It was still about 2/3 full. Beth smiled to herself as she remembered the night she and Daryl got drunk off moonshine. It was the first time he had actually opened up to her and told her anything about his past and his life before the turn. To some people, it might not seem like a big deal, but for Daryl, Beth knew it was. She had managed to tear down at least some of the walls he had been holding in place for so long, and she liked seeing the man he was behind those walls.

Still smiling fondly at the memory, Beth limped over to the linen closet and began going through it. There were towels, sheets, blankets, and a few spare toiletry items, including new toothbrushes and toothpaste, bars of soap, deodorant, and a bar of laundry soap. They were basic and generic, but to Beth, they seemed like gold.

As she moved on throughout the house, she found some rope, men's clothes that looked as though they had belonged to a heavyset man, and even an old hunting rifle in the bedroom closet. Beth piled the loot on the coffee table so she could show Daryl when he returned from hunting. She decided to wash her clothes in the tub with the bar of laundry soap. Her body was clean from the shower, and she couldn't wait for her clothes to be clean, too. She hummed a song to herself as she filled the tub with water and peeled off her filthy clothing. Despite the horrors of the night before, today was turning out to be a good day.

* * *

Daryl crept through the woods, careful not to make a sound as he approached a rabbit. He took aim and swiftly sent a bolt through it, successfully procuring dinner for him and Beth. It hadn't taken him long to find the rabbit, which led him to believe that there weren't as many walkers in this area as in others. The ghouls tended to scare off most prey when they were around.

Even though he had already secured their meal, Daryl decided to wander through the woods for a bit longer to get a better grasp on what was around the cabin. He headed toward the stream he had heard earlier and reached it after a short while. It was just a short walk from the cabin. Daryl sat down on a rock next to the water and began skinning and gutting his kill.

His thoughts wandered to Beth, and he was flooded with relief all over again. He couldn't believe that he had almost lost her. If it hadn't been for her bravery and determination, he probably would have lost her. He didn't want to think about what might have happened to her if she had been taken to wherever those men had been going. Anyone who was out kidnapping pretty young girls couldn't have pure intentions. He felt himself growing angry at the thought and forced himself to brush the thoughts away. It didn't matter what _could _have happened. She was here, and she was safe, and he would keep her that way.

He thought about all the things he had wanted to say to her when he had been running after the car, and how he suddenly felt that he didn't have the guts to do so. He saw her in his mind's eye smiling at him before he had left the cabin. He should have said something to her then to make her realize how much almost losing her had wrecked him. He should have told her how glad he was that she was here, and that he would have run to the end of the earth to save her. He should have admitted that, to him, she represented everything that was good in the world, and he that he had grown to love being around her. But now, with her here only a few hundred feet away, admitting these things to her seemed impossible. Daryl had never been good at expressing himself or his feelings, and the thought of pouring his heart out to Beth suddenly seemed terrifying. He had never let anyone in the way he had let her in, and the idea of opening himself up to her further filled him with anxiety.

He sighed and shook his head at himself. He would make sure she knew how glad he was that she was safe, and maybe someday he could work up to telling her how much she had affected him. She was on her way to making him into a better person, but his hesitance to get close to people was a hard habit to break. After a lifetime of conditioning and experiences to make him push people away, trusting someone the way he was starting to trust Beth was an entirely new thing for him.

Daryl pushed himself off the rock he was seated on and rinsed the blood from his hands in the stream. He grabbed the prepared rabbit and made his way back to the cabin. He wondered if Beth had found anything useful while he was gone. He hadn't been gone long at all, maybe an hour at most, but the cabin wasn't very big, so it couldn't have taken long to search. He strode up the steps of the screened in porch and opened the door to a sight he wasn't prepared for.

There was Beth, standing in the living room in nothing but her bra and underwear. She stared at the open door like a deer in headlights, and Daryl's eyes involuntarily traveled down her body. Beth turned beet red and hastily grabbed a flannel shirt that was on the coffee table, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to cover herself with it. Daryl coughed and reddened as he realized he'd been staring.

"Shit, uh, sorry," he muttered, quickly turning around and fleeing from the doorway back out onto the porch. He pinched his nose between his eyes and exhaled slowly. Daryl certainly hadn't expected Beth to be nearly naked in the living room, and now the image was burned into his mind. She was wearing a simple light pink bra and matching underwear, and Daryl was faced with the sudden realization that her slender body had enticed an entirely inappropriate attraction in him.

_No, no, no, fuck no, _he thought to himself. _She's just a kid. _How old was she now anyway? Eighteen? Nineteen? Way too young for a man of his age to be thinking of her like that. He almost groaned aloud and hated himself for allowing himself to look at her in that way. It was so very wrong. He was her protector and her companion, and he felt like a dirty old man for being unable to stop himself from looking.

"Uh, hey," Beth's soft voice suddenly pulled him from his thoughts. He spun around to see her standing in the doorway, now wearing a very oversized flannel shirt that looked as though it were actually a large dress swallowing her small frame.

"The hell were you doin' walkin' around in your underwear?" Daryl snapped, his tone sharper than he intended. She blushed red again and looked away.

"I found a bar of laundry soap and I washed my clothes in the tub, but I realized I hadn't brought any others into the bathroom with me. I didn't expect you back so soon, so I went out to grab one of the shirts I found earlier. You walked in at just the wrong time."

Daryl nodded, unable to meet her eyes. "Sorry," he apologized again.

"It's okay," Beth said quietly, still clearly very embarrassed. "Looks like you caught something?"

"Rabbit," Daryl grunted in response.

"That's good. I found some good stuff in the house. Come see?"

Daryl nodded and followed her back inside the house. He kept his eyes down and looked away from her bare legs as she limped over to the living room. The oversized flannel she was wearing covered her legs decently enough, but after what he'd seen moments before, Daryl was afraid that the sight of her exposed pale skin would give him flashbacks of her in her underwear. He set the rabbit down on the kitchen counter and cleared his throat awkwardly as she sat on one of the couches. He took a few steps toward her to see her pile of loot, but didn't sit down next to her.

"Found this rifle in the bedroom closet, some rope, toiletries, clothes that are enormous on me and would probably still be big on you, and this. My favorite find." She held up the Swiss army knife.

"Lemme see that," Daryl muttered, trying to snatch it from her. She held it out of his reach.

"Okay, but I call dibs on it. I want it," she said with a playful smile.

Daryl arched his eyebrows at her and shrugged. "Okay, it's yours. Can I see _your _knife?"

Beth grinned and tossed it to him. Daryl flipped open the blade and whistled appreciatively as he examined the knife's features.

"Good find," he said with a nod.

"I thought so, too. I didn't find any empty cans or anything to make a perimeter alarm with though. We've got the rope, but nothing to tie to it."

"Didn't see any walkers in the woods," Daryl said. "Haven't seen any since I was up on the road yesterday. We'll probably be fine just covering up the windows and proppin' a chair under the door tonight. Tomorrow I'll go out and look for some stuff on the road we can use."

Beth nodded and settled back on the couch a little.

"You're really okay with just stayin' here for a bit?" she asked.

"Sure," Daryl replied with a shrug.

"And you're okay with not going out and lookin' for the others for a while?"

"I just got you back, girl. One step at a time."

Beth grinned at him, and Daryl felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as well.

* * *

They were both full and content. They had cooked the rabbit over the fire in the fireplace, and now dark had fallen outside. Daryl had taken apart the old rifle Beth had found and was almost done cleaning it, and Beth was writing in her journal by the light of the fire. She finished what she was writing and set the journal on the coffee table.

"I found a bottle of whiskey in one of the kitchen cabinets," Beth said.

Daryl glanced up to find her looking at him with a somewhat mischievous expression on her face.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I think we should drink some."

Daryl shook his head and gave her a half smile. "Not till you're healed."

Beth scoffed at him. "Yes, Mr. Dixon."

"Besides," Daryl smirked at her, "we wanna stay here for a bit. If I give you booze, you might burn the place down."

Beth laughed. It felt good to laugh. She suddenly realized that it was the first time she had laughed since they had gotten here. Since she had woken up to discover that Daryl had rescued her. She smiled at him and noticed him studying her intensely, as if he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. He suddenly stood from where he was seated on the floor.

"I'll take first watch," he muttered. "You get some sleep. I'll wake you in a couple hours."

Beth nodded and stood from the couch as Daryl went out the front door to keep watch on the porch. She limped into the bedroom and lay down on the bed. She could hear the sound of crickets and cicadas singing outside, and thankfully no snarls or moans from walkers interrupted the peaceful sound of the night. But as soon as Beth settled down and closed her eyes, the tranquility of the night was ruined by flashbacks of the night before. She saw the indifferent face of the man who had first grabbed her and thrown her to the ground, and she covered her bruised ribs with her hands as she remembered his brutal kicks to her side. Flashes of burying her knife in the driver's neck ran through her head, and she remembered the way the tires squealed as the car swerved. Visions of the car careening toward the large tree repeated in her mind. She began to feel anxious and her chest felt tight. She tried to think of positive things, but her mind kept bringing her back.

After trying unsuccessfully to banish the thoughts from her head for several minutes, Beth sat up. She rubbed her eyes and told herself to stop worrying about what had happened. She had made it. Daryl had come for her. Daryl was here now, and he would keep her safe.

She took a deep breath and stood from the bed. She limped out of the bedroom and to the front door. When she opened it and came out onto the porch, she found Daryl sitting on the porch steps. He turned to look at her in confusion.

"Can't sleep," Beth said quietly. "I can't stop thinking about what happened. Last night, I mean. It won't stop playing in my head."

Daryl frowned and said nothing. He didn't know what to say. He knew what it was like to be haunted by things, and it usually wasn't something that could be easily dismissed.

Beth took a tentative step forward. "Could you . . . could you lay with me a while? Just till I fall asleep?"

Her voice was so quiet that Daryl almost didn't hear her. He didn't reply, but stood from where he was seated and made his way over to her. She gave him a grateful smile, turning and shuffling back inside and toward the bedroom. She laid back down on the bed and scooted to the far side. Daryl lay down next to her. He folded his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, listening to the night around them. Beth carefully moved closer to him and tentatively laid her head on his chest. Daryl instantly tensed.

"Is this okay?" Beth asked softly.

Daryl forced himself to relax and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Yeah."

Beth scooted a little closer to him and Daryl slowly moved one of his arms from behind his head to circle around her back. His touch was light and unsure, but it was more than enough for Beth. Daryl's scent of sweat and woods was comforting to her, and the steady rise and fall of his breathing was a constant reminder that he was there and he was real.

The haunting memories of the night before faded away, and Beth drifted off to sleep in the safety of Daryl's arms.


	4. Chapter 4

**Here is chapter four! It may be a day or two before I can post chapter five. Work has gotten insane and I'm working lots of overtime to meet extremely tight deadlines. Bear with me and please review! :)**

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"Hold it higher," Daryl instructed. Beth rose the crossbow, and Daryl shook his head. "Not that high." He stepped close to her and stood behind her, his arms reaching around her and gently lowering the bow to the correct height. Beth tried to ignore the jolt in her stomach that she felt as he touched her skin and squinted at the target ahead on the tree before firing. The bolt sailed through the air and hit its mark. She let out a victorious whoop and turned around to grin at Daryl.

"Told you I could hit it!"

"You wouldn't have with the way you were holding it without my help," Daryl smirked at her. Beth rolled her eyes and went to collect the arrow from the tree.

The pair of them had been at the hunting cabin for five days now, and Beth's ankle was bothering her much less. She had been going stir crazy sitting in the cabin recovering, and now that she could walk without a pronounced limp, she had demanded that Daryl take her out to practice more with the crossbow. She was still eager to learn more about tracking, but Daryl didn't want them to wander too far from the cabin until she was fully healed. Her ribs were still pretty battered, and despite the improvements in her ankle, he knew that if they came across trouble, she wouldn't be able to run very well. He had agreed to teach her more about using the crossbow, however, and now they were practicing with it outside the cabin.

"Let's make a game of it," Beth suggested as she returned with the arrow. She handed it to Daryl, and he loaded the bow for her.

"A game? Like how?"

"Like every time I hit the target, you have to tell me something about your life before the turn."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at her. "I don't like the sound of this game."

"Oh, come on," Beth said with an eye roll. "It doesn't have to be anything serious or important. You could tell me what your favorite food was, or what your first car was, or whatever."

"Why do you care? Why do you wanna know 'bout my life before?"

Beth shrugged. "Cause you pretty much never talk about it. You're a damn mystery, and I want to know more about you."

Daryl didn't look convinced, and Beth rolled her eyes again.

"You said it yourself; I wouldn't have hit the target without your help. Who knows if I'll be able to hit it at all?"

"Good point," Daryl replied with a smirk. "So what happens if you don't hit the target?"

"I'll tell you something about me."

Daryl almost made a comment about how much she already talked about her life before the turn, but decided against it. He nodded.

"Okay then. Take your first shot."

Beth carefully raised the bow and aimed it. Daryl could already tell she was aiming too low, but he said nothing, standing back with his arms crossed over his chest. Beth let the bolt fly and, as Daryl had suspected, it hit the tree a good 6 inches below the target.

"At least I hit the tree," Beth shrugged. She went and retrieved the bolt and handed it to Daryl, who was eying her expectantly.

"Oh, right. Umm, let's see. Before the turn, I wanted to go to college and major in elementary education," she stated.

"You like kids?" Daryl asked as he loaded the bow again for her, but he realized it was a stupid question since she had been Judith's primary caretaker at the prison.

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Always wanted a few of them later in life. Obviously that's changed now. This world ain't a place for children."

Daryl nodded gravely, trying not to think of Judith's unknown fate as he handed the loaded bow back to Beth. She took careful aim again and released the bolt, and once again, it hit too low, but only by about three inches this time. Beth sighed heavily and went to retrieve it.

"I never once skipped class in high school," she stated as Daryl loaded the bow. "At least, not until things started going bad right before the turn."

"Really?" Daryl asked incredulously. "I think I skipped more than I went. Didn't graduate, neither."

"Well neither did I," Beth replied. "Hey, look at that. You're tellin' me stuff without me even hitting the target."

Daryl rolled his eyes at her and handed the bow back to her again. Something about Beth made her easy to talk to, which kind of scared him. Beth may have said she wanted to know more about him, but Daryl was sure that if she knew about all the skeletons in his closet, she would regret wanting to know.

Beth aimed the crossbow and let the arrow fly, and this time, it struck the target. She squealed in excitement and ran to grab it.

"Now you have to tell me something!" she said triumphantly, handing the arrow to him and trying to ignore the way his biceps flexed when he loaded the bow.

Daryl hummed in thought, wondering what he could tell her that wasn't serious or depressing. He handed the bow to her.

"My usual drink order at a bar would be a Jameson on the rocks and a Hamm's beer back."

Beth looked at him blankly. "I don't even know what that means."

Daryl chuckled, forgetting how young she actually was. "Jameson is an Irish whiskey. Hamm's is a shitty cheap beer."

"We still have a bottle of whiskey that remains untouched in the cabin," she reminded him with a grin.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're tryin' to get me drunk," Daryl grumbled.

"Maybe I am." Beth smirked at him with a devious look in her eye, and Daryl couldn't help finding her mischievous expression sexy. He shook his head. _No, not sexy. She's still practically a kid_, he scolded himself_. _

"I'm surprised you'd want to be around me when I'm drunk after the way I was last time," Daryl said.

"I handled you just fine then, and I think I could handle you just fine now," Beth replied as she aimed the crossbow.

Her words were innocent, but Daryl immediately thought of Beth "handling" him in other ways. He wanted to slap himself for thinking such thoughts. Why couldn't his mind stay pure? Ever since he had accidentally walked in on Beth in her underwear a few days prior, he found it hard to ignore his attraction to her. It was completely inappropriate, but Daryl couldn't help it. Despite her young age, Beth was beautiful. Daryl now suddenly found her innocence alluring, and the desire made him feel like a perverted old man. He had tried to convince himself that his attraction was solely because he hadn't been with a woman in years, and walking in on Beth nearly naked had been his only glimpse of a real woman's body since the turn. But that was the problem—Daryl had been thinking of Beth as a girl, not a woman, until the sight of her body proved otherwise. And he knew that his attraction wasn't purely physical. Beth made him feel like a different person, and the goodness in her was almost intoxicating. As much as he tried to ignore his newfound feelings, the way his heart sped up when she would lay her head on his chest each night before going to sleep couldn't be ignored. One thing was for sure, though. Daryl was terrified of his changing feelings for Beth.

A delighted yelp brought Daryl out of his thoughts. Beth had hit the target again, and she was grinning ear to ear when she returned the arrow to him. She looked at him expectantly and Daryl sighed.

"Okay, uh . . . I shot my first buck when I was six years old."

"Impressive," she said. "Your dad must have started teaching you when you were really young."

Daryl nodded once, not wanting to delve into it. Beth looked like she was about to ask more about it, but he was saved from the query by the sudden appearance of a walker shambling toward them a few feet away. Daryl started to load the crossbow, but Beth had already flipped open her new Swiss army knife and was marching toward the ghoul with the blade in hand. Before Daryl could even aim his crossbow, she put the biter down with a swift thrust of her blade. She turned to smile triumphantly at him, but another walker appeared to her left, which Daryl quickly put down with the arrow he had loaded for the first. He scanned the woods for signs of other biters, and but thankfully the woods seemed quiet once again.

"First walkers I've seen out here," Daryl said as Beth wiped her blade clean on the dead walker's shirt. She flipped the blade closed and slipped it back into her pocket.

"They're bound to wander this way eventually," Beth shrugged. "Still, it was nice to not see a walker for a few days."

"We need a better perimeter alarm," Daryl noted, shouldering his crossbow and going to retrieve the arrow he had used to down the second walker. They had managed to rig up a small perimeter alarm in front of the porch using stuff Daryl had scavenged from the road, but it was nowhere near big enough to circle the entire cabin.

"Where are we gonna find the stuff to make one?" Beth asked. "Maybe we should try to find a town nearby?"

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, but not till you're in better shape." He glanced around the woods, looking thoughtful. He turned his gaze back to Beth, who was watching him.

"How long do you really wanna stay here?" he asked her.

If Beth was honest, she wanted to stay at the cabin for as long as possible. She wanted to find their group as much as she always had, but she had to admit that she had enjoyed the past few days with him in the cabin, not having to worry about finding a place to sleep at night or about the dangers of being on the road. It had been just her and Daryl for almost a month now since the prison fell, and even though finding their friends and family were still on her agenda, she selfishly admitted that she wanted to keep Daryl to herself for now. She knew that once they were reunited with the group, Daryl would probably go back to the way he was before they lost the prison, and he wouldn't spend more time around her than he had to. Beth wasn't ready to let him go just yet.

She realized Daryl was still waiting for her reply, and she shifted awkwardly and gave a half shrug.

"At least a couple weeks," she managed to say. "But I wouldn't mind staying longer. If you can put up with my company for longer, that is," she tried to joke, but it came out sounding forced, and she was afraid her voice had revealed her anxiety about the issue. But Daryl just nodded.

"We should think about fortifying the cabin a little. Maybe we can sharpen some tree branches into points to jam into the ground kind of like we had outside the prison gates. If walkers are trying to get to the cabin, it'd skewer some of 'em so we can deal with 'em easier."

"Good idea," Beth agreed. "D'you wanna start on that today?"

Daryl looked up and observed the position of the sun in the sky. He guessed it was early afternoon.

"Yeah. Let's gather up a bunch of wood, and you can start sharpening some of it while I go hunt us down some dinner in a bit."

Beth nodded and followed Daryl into the trees to search for suitable wood for their task. She couldn't stop her eyes from wandering to him as they worked, and she bit her lip as she watched his muscles flex as he lifted the heavy loads of sticks and branches to haul back over to the cabin. She shook her head at herself and wondered when she had become so attracted to him. They had been growing closer as time went on, that was for sure, but it was growing into something more. It was more than just a feeling of safety around him, because that had always been there. Maybe it was because before, they had always been running from place to place, focused on survival, and here at the cabin, they were finally able to relax a little and think about things other than how they were going to survive the night. Regardless of how it came about, however, Beth was starting to see Daryl in a different light.

Each night they had been at the cabin, Daryl had willingly let her fall asleep on his chest before he took first watch. It was becoming routine. At first, she had sensed that he had been uncomfortable, but he was beginning to tense up less when she laid close to him. She liked the feeling of his arm protectively wrapped around her, and she always fell asleep within minutes when she was next to him. It was becoming clear to her that she wanted more from Daryl than just his friendship. She hoped that he was starting to feel the same way, and she caught the way he looked at her at times, but she wondered if she was just seeing what she wanted to see. Daryl was a grown man, and he probably thought of her as just a girl, a kid, too young to have anything beyond friendship with. As she watched him drag two particularly large fallen tree branches toward the cabin, his muscles tense and his skin shining with sweat, she felt a heat in the pit of her stomach that was impossible to ignore. She decided that she needed to make Daryl realize that she wasn't just a kid and that she was a capable young woman. Maybe if he was able to see her as a woman, he would be more open to the idea of pushing the current boundaries of their relationship.

"I ain't out here just for your viewin' pleasure, Greene," Daryl suddenly snapped at her, bringing her out of her reverie.

"Sorry," she said quickly, her cheeks flushing in embarrassment, and she hurried off to find some lighter branches she could haul back to the cabin. She tried not to look at him as they worked, but it was difficult. When Daryl announced that he was going out to hunt, Beth was almost relieved.

Daryl Dixon was going to be the death of her.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chapter is extra long because I was unable to update the past two days, and I may not be able to update for another few days because of the ongoing "crisis" at work. Please review; your reviews make me happy! :)**

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Beth stepped out of the shower and grabbed her towel to dry off. She glanced at Daryl's towel hanging on the rack next to where hers had been and rolled her eyes, knowing that in the full week they had been at the cabin, he had only showered once. Daryl's rough nature made showering a low priority for him, and while Beth would have once found such a habit unappealing, she realized that Daryl actually looked quite good covered in dirt and grime. Who would have thought that she would find Daryl's lack of cleanliness sexy?

Beth looked at her reflection in the mirror and examined the stitches that were still present on the corner of her forehead. She realized that they had been in for seven days, which was two days longer than when they should have been removed. Her father had always removed facial stitches after four or five days. She sighed sadly at the memory of him and decided she would attempt to remove the stitches today.

She dressed in her only set of clothes that were quickly becoming filthy again and took a moment to tie her wet hair up in a ponytail. She pulled out the Swiss army knife that was in one of her pants pockets as always and flipped open the small pair of scissors. Leaning close to the mirror, she brought the tip of one of the blades to her wound and tried to delicately cut one of the stitches free. She winced as the thread pulled at her still-sensitive skin, and she sighed and lowered the scissors. She wanted Daryl's help with this task.

Beth could hear Daryl outside digging holes for their sharpened wood posts. So far, they had put posts in the ground on three sides of the cabin, and they were close to finishing their line of defense on the fourth side today. The sharpened points circled the cabin leaning outward with only about 6 inches between each post, save for a small opening they had made for themselves on one side of the cabin. Any ghouls that managed to slip through the opening would then trip the small perimeter alarm that was still hanging by the front door. They had been able to test the spikes once on two walkers that had wandered their way, but the dead had been too stupid to go for the opening in the spikes and ended up impaling themselves on the spikes in front of the cabin. It had been easy to take care of them while they were stuck on the spikes. Although the spikes were not nearly as good of a defense as the prison's high fences had been, they were enough to make the pair of them feel relatively safe for the time being.

Beth wandered outside and around the side of the cabin and watched Daryl digging for a few moments before approaching him. He looked up at her and stood from where he was digging, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.

"Looks like it's almost done," she observed. Daryl nodded.

"Just a couple more holes to dig."

Daryl turned the metal bucket he was using as a shovel upside down and sat down on it, taking a swig of water from the bottle he had with him outside. He looked up at the sun in the sky and squinted, trying to decipher the time.

"Looks to be about late morning," he said. "You still up for heading up toward the road today?"

"Yeah," Beth agreed. They intended to follow the road for a ways to see if they could find a nearby town, or at least get a better idea of where they were. Now that Beth's injuries were in much better shape, she couldn't wait to get out of the cabin for a bit.

"Could you help me take my stitches out before we go?" Beth asked. "I tried, but it hurt and I sorta chickened out."

Daryl gave her half a smirk and nodded. He stood from his makeshift seat on the bucket and nodded toward the house. Beth made her way back inside with Daryl following. She sat on one of the living room couches and waited while Daryl washed his hands in the kitchen sink. He made his way over to the small end table where he had found the sewing kit and grabbed the small pair of sewing scissors. Beth scooted to the edge of the couch and Daryl crouched in front of her.

"We probably should have taken these out a few days ago," Beth said as he gently tilted her head up toward the light, examining the stitches. "Daddy told me that you should take facial stitches out after five days."

Daryl hummed in agreement and gently brushed his thumb over the stitches. Beth suddenly realized how close his face was to hers and tried to ignore her rapidly increasing heartbeat. Daryl raised the sewing scissors to the stitches and began carefully snipping them free. The tugging on the wound hurt a bit, but Beth was too focused on the feeling of Daryl's touch on her face and how blue his eyes looked up close that she didn't even notice the pain. He set the scissors down on the coffee table and began gently pulling each thread free from the freshly healed wound. Before long, he was finished, and Beth felt a small pang of disappointment when he pulled away and stood.

"Sorry I didn't do a better job stitchin' it up," he muttered. "It's a scar now."

Beth blinked and snapped back to reality.

"It's okay," she said quickly. "I'll take a scar over ending up where those men were takin' me any day."

Daryl's expression noticeably darkened at the mention of Beth's kidnappers, and she quickly changed the subject.

"You ready to head out toward the road?"

Daryl nodded. "Got everythin' packed?"

"Yep," Beth said, standing from the couch and going to retrieve her backpack by the door. She had packed two cans of food, some water, matches, and the basic first aid kit from the bathroom just in case they ran into trouble on the road and couldn't get back that day. Beth slipped the backpack over her shoulders and Daryl grabbed his crossbow before they both headed out the door.

"Wish we could lock the door," Daryl muttered as they slipped through the gap in the spikes and began walking through the woods toward the road.

"Are you wanting to lock our stuff in or lock other people out?" Beth asked.

Daryl shrugged. "Both."

Beth was silent for a few moments, trying to make her steps as quiet as Daryl's as they walked through the woods. She couldn't help remembering that night at the funeral home, when Daryl had revealed that she had been the one to make him believe in good people. She remembered his intense gaze as he had stared at her, and she almost shivered at the memory.

"What happened to makin' it work? With other people, if they were to show up, I mean?" she asked tentatively.

"What're you talkin' about?"

"That night at the funeral home. You said that if the people who had been staying there came back, maybe we could make it work."

"That was different."

"How? If people showed up at the cabin, isn't that kinda the same thing?"

Daryl turned to look at her, his expression unreadable.

"I guess."

Beth could hear the doubt in his voice, and it almost pained her to hear it.

"Just because some bad people tried to take me doesn't mean that all people are bad, Daryl," she said softly. "I still believe that, and I hope you do, too."

Daryl said nothing, just stared at the ground as they walked with his jaw clenched tight. Beth wanted to walk closer to him, maybe try to remind him that there were still good people around, but she didn't. She let out a short sigh and walked next to him in silence, the air tense around them.

After walking in silence for a while, they reached the road. Beth's eyes traveled down the pavement and landed on the wrecked car that had taken her. Her eyes widened and she lifted a hand to her mouth in astonishment. The front end of the car was completely collapsed into the tree, and broken glass littered the ground. She was amazed that she had survived such a crash with only minor injuries. Tears pricked her eyes, but she couldn't tell if it was because the image was upsetting or if she was just so thankful to be alive. She looked to Daryl, who was watching her with concern reflected in his eyes. He didn't say anything, but he extended his hand to her. She took it and laced her fingers with his, the gesture more comforting than any words would have been. Daryl gave her hand a soft squeeze and began gently leading her away in the opposite direction of the wreck. Beth blinked the tears away and turned away from the car, putting the image behind her.

The pair of them walked hand in hand in comfortable silence for some time. Eventually, Daryl spotted a few empty cans of food on the side of the road, and he dropped Beth's hand to pick them up.

"For the perimeter alarm," he said, motioning for her to turn around so he could put them in her backpack. She hoped he would take her hand again as they resumed walking, but to her disappointment, he didn't. They continued walking for about half an hour until they came across an old, beaten up pickup truck on the side of the road. Daryl stopped as they approached it.

"Doesn't look like it's been sittin' here too long," he observed. "Maybe the battery is still good."

Beth's grew hopeful. A working vehicle would be extremely useful. Most of the cars they had passed on the side of the road had been there for so long that they were in no shape to drive, and even if they were, it was likely that their batteries had been dead for too long to use. Daryl peeked inside the truck and opened the driver's side door. He didn't find any keys and instead went to work on hotwiring the car. Beth leaned against the side of the truck keeping watch as he worked. They hadn't encountered any walkers on the road yet, but Beth was still on alert, just in case.

A few minutes later, the truck roared to life. Daryl gave Beth a grin, and she happily made her way around the truck the passenger side. The pair hopped in and began driving down the road in the direction they had been walking.

"Even if we don't find a town, I'd say today was already successful," Beth declared happily.

Daryl squinted up ahead, a green sign slowly coming into view.

"The day might be gettin' even better," he muttered as the sign came into reading distance. "Greenville, 5 miles."

He raised his hand on the steering wheel to glance down at the gas gauge.

"Still got about a quarter of a tank left. Maybe we can find more gas in Greenville."

"Among other things," Beth said hopefully. Maybe they could find more food, toiletries, or even fresh clothing. She tried not to get her hopes up too high, but she couldn't help it. It felt like forever since Beth had seen an actual town.

Soon the truck was entering the small town. It was tiny, and according to the sign on the city limits, it had had a population of 876 before the outbreak. It was clearly a historical town, as several ornate old buildings lined the street. Beth smiled at the sight of a rather magnificent historical county courthouse, though it had clearly fallen into disrepair after the turn. The main road of the town circled around the courthouse, and Daryl pulled to a stop in front of a line of shops.

"Let's check out the pharmacy first," he said, nodding at the single-story white building with the words "Greenville Drug Co." displayed above the door.

Beth climbed out of the car and stretched, looking around the town square. Her eyes landed on a green sign with arrows pointing in the directions of nearby towns, and she felt a slight chill when she read the words "Woodbury" at the top of the sign.

"Daryl," she said softly. "Look."

Daryl followed her gaze and frowned at the sign. He wasn't sure how close Greenville was to Woodbury, but he had no desire to get any closer to it. It was no longer a threat, but the very name brought back too many painful memories for both of them.

"C'mon," he grunted, eager to get away from the reminder of Woodbury.

Daryl approached the pharmacy and gave the door a few loud taps. After a moment, two walkers shuffled into view, pressing their decaying bodies against the glass. Beth pulled open the door and Daryl quickly took down one with his crossbow, killing the other swiftly with his hunting knife. The pair cautiously entered the pharmacy, but aside from the two biters that had been within, it was quiet. Daryl grabbed a few plastic bags from behind the counter and handed a few to Beth.

"You take that side. Take anything that could be remotely useful," he said. She nodded and made her way over to the right side of the store.

It looked like the place had already been looted once or twice, but Beth was still able to find several luxury items that she almost moaned aloud upon seeing. Toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, body wash, shampoo, shaving razors, lip balm . . . all items that were not necessary for survival, but would drastically improve her day to day mood. She shoved them all into the plastic bags she was carrying with a wide smile on her face. She turned down the next aisle and was faced with feminine hygiene products. She realized with a start that she hadn't had a period since they had still been living at the prison. She wondered if the stress of survival had interrupted her cycle, and decided she had better grab some supplies to be prepared for whenever her period decided to make another appearance.

As she made her way down the aisle, shoving pantyliners and tampons into her bags, she came across the family planning section. The selection of condoms seemed to stare at her, and she blushed thinking about any scenario when she might need them. She was sure that Daryl didn't think of her as she had been thinking of him, but what if he changed his mind? What if she was finally able to make Daryl see her as a woman, a woman he wanted, and then was caught unprepared? She quickly glanced down the aisle to make sure Daryl wasn't watching before shoving two boxes of ordinary condoms into her bag. She quickly covered them with the packages of tampons, knowing Daryl wouldn't go digging in that bag for anything, and moved on.

"Find anything good?" Daryl's voice startled her as she came around the corner. She felt herself blushing at the thought of the condoms in her bag and nodded.

"Mostly just luxury items," she said. "I can't wait to wash my hair with the coconut shampoo I found!"

Daryl rolled his eyes at her. "Well, while you were nabbing girly shit, I got first aid supplies, ibuprofen, a map, and a couple bags of jerky that were under one of the shelves. All the other food is gone."

Beth nodded. "Let's put the bags in the truck and see what else we can find around here."

They exited the pharmacy and Beth scanned the shops that were near the pharmacy while Daryl loaded the bags in the truck. None of the stores looked particularly useful, but she found herself wandering toward a small clothing boutique. She turned to Daryl, who was eying her with arched eyebrows.

"Can we? Please? My clothes are so dirty, and I'd kill for a shirt to wear that isn't covered in dirt and walker guts."

Daryl rolled his eyes, but nodded, following her to the clothing boutique. He pounded on the door, but no biters made an appearance. Beth opened the door and Daryl entered first, his crossbow raised. The shop was empty, however, and he made his way back outside.

"Where are you going?" Beth asked.

"Found some cigarettes in the pharmacy," he said. "I'm gonna enjoy one out here while you do your shopping. Be quick about it."

Beth looked around the store and hurried over to a shelf where jeans were still folded neatly as if they hadn't been disturbed since the turn. She grabbed two pairs in her size, one in black and one in a lighter denim, and quickly grabbed a few shirts. She made her way back toward the dressing rooms to change into her new clothes and stopped upon seeing the intimates section. The bras and underwear were all fancier and more mature than the ones she wore now, and she felt a sudden sense of excitement upon seeing them. She had never worn lacy undergarments like these, and the thought of wearing something pretty underneath her clothes excited her. She picked out several pairs of delicate panties and two matching bras and took her pile of clothing into the dressing room to change.

When she emerged from the dressing room, Beth felt like a new woman, dressed in new clothes from head to toe. She had chosen the black jeans and a simple, loose gray tunic with a black cami underneath. She grinned at the thought of the black lace underwear that she wore under her new clothes, and she happily exited the store to find Daryl finishing his cigarette outside.

"Well, don't you look shiny and new," he remarked.

"You outta find some new clothes for yourself while we're here," Beth suggested. "You've been wearing those for over a month."

Daryl shrugged, his clothing the last thing on his mind. "Got better things to look for," he said. "Let's head over to that garage, see if there's stuff we can use for the perimeter alarm."

Beth followed Daryl across the street to a white auto garage. It was thankfully void of walkers, and she and Daryl quickly ransacked the place, taking things that could be used for the perimeter alarm as well as a few cans of gasoline and a fully-stocked toolbox that would surely be of use.

As they left the garage, Daryl stopped in his tracks and pointed toward the courthouse. About fifteen to twenty walkers were shambling in their direction.

"Time to go," Daryl grunted, running back to the truck with Beth on his heels. They tossed the supplies from the auto shop in the truck bed and Daryl quickly started the truck and began driving back down the highway they had come in on. Beth watched the small herd of walkers shuffling after them as the town disappeared behind them, the dead disappearing with it.

"I'd say today was a good day," Beth said with a smile.

Daryl glanced at her and smiled as well. "Yeah," he agreed. "Today was definitely a good day."


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm sorry I haven't been able to update in a few days! Work has been crazy and I was pretty sick this weekend. Here is chapter six! It's another long chapter to make up for the wait. Please review! :)**

* * *

Beth was clearly in a good mood when they returned to the cabin. Daryl parked the truck on what remained of the dirt road that led to the place and started helping Beth carry their newfound loot inside. She grabbed a few of the pharmacy bags and her pile of clothing, humming as she made her way inside. Daryl almost smiled in spite of himself; her happiness was almost contagious. She jostled the bags in her hands and opened the door, disappearing inside. Daryl grabbed the toolbox and the remaining bags from the pharmacy. He decided to leave the cans of gasoline in the bed of the truck, since the truck itself would be where the fuel was needed. He slipped through the gap in the spikes and made his way up the porch, stopping when he saw something on the floorboards outside the door.

He set the toolbox down and bent down to pick it up, suddenly realizing that it was a pair of underwear. It was made of delicate white lace, and he could tell that Beth had to have picked it up in the clothing boutique since the fabric was still crisp and new. She appeared suddenly in the doorway and glanced down at the underwear in his hand.

"Uh, you dropped this," Daryl muttered, shoving the panties into her hands as if they had burned him. He felt the back of his neck turning red as he grabbed the toolbox and moved past Beth to go inside. Images of Beth wearing the lacy white underwear flashed through his mind, as much as he willed them not to. The sight of her in her plain, light pink underwear from before had turned him on enough, and imagining her wearing the tiny white panties was too much for him. He could feel the rest of his face and ears flushing, and he tried not to look at her as she closed the door behind them with the underwear still in hand.

"You can't tell me that seeing women's underwear makes you _that _uncomfortable," Beth teased him as she placed the panties with the rest of her clothes.

Daryl grunted in response. He couldn't tell her that it wasn't the underwear, but the idea of _her _in the underwear that had irked him. It was completely inappropriate.

"Gonna go finish digging," he muttered, quickly fleeing back outside without meeting her eye.

He walked around to the back of the cabin and exhaled slowly. He reached into his pocket and fished out one of the cigarettes from the pack he'd found and lit it, allowing the smoke to fill his lungs. His attraction to Beth was getting out of hand if imagining her in racy underwear was enough to make him need a cigarette. He leaned against the back wall of the cabin and repeatedly reminded himself of how young Beth was. She may have been over 18, but that didn't really mean she was an adult. Just a few years ago she had been a suicidal teenager that he hadn't really cared about. He couldn't believe how different things were now.

He was able to admit to himself that he cared about Beth more than he had ever cared about most people. She was special and she saw the good in him, as she did with everyone. Daryl knew he never wanted to lose her or for anything bad to happen to her, and he knew he would give his life for her if it came down to it. But what he was having a harder time admitting to himself was his desire to make their relationship more than it was. He wished things could have stayed the way they were, as two people who cared deeply for one another, but were just friends surviving together in an ugly world. Romantic feelings and sexual attractions only complicated things, and they were two things Daryl Dixon had never been good at.

Daryl could hear Beth singing in the cabin, her sweet voice drifting through an open window somewhere. He finished his cigarette and picked up the bucket to resume digging. Maybe if he could focus his thoughts and energy on fortifying the cabin, he could keep inappropriate thoughts of Beth out of his mind.

* * *

Beth hummed softly to herself as she stirred the skillet of rabbit meat and dandelion leaves over the wood stove. After finishing the sharpened posts that now circled the entire cabin, Daryl had gone out to hunt and returned shortly after sundown with two decently sized rabbits for dinner. He had also brought several handfuls of dandelion leaves, which, while quite bitter, were edible. After Daryl had butchered the rabbits, Beth had put everything in a skillet along with some salt, pepper, and a little honey she had found in one of the cabinets to take away some of the bitterness of the dandelion.

"I want you to teach me more about edible wild plants," Beth said as she stirred.

Daryl looked up from the map he had found at the drugstore and nodded.

"Probably a good idea," he agreed. "I don't know a lot, but what I do know is enough."

"Maybe we can find a library somewhere. Get some books on edible plants. Hell, any books to read would be amazing," Beth sighed. "I miss reading."

"Come look at the map," Daryl called her over. "I think I know about where we are."

Beth left the kitchen area and went to where Daryl was seated on the floor in the living room, reading the map by the light of the fire.

"Here's Greenville, the town we were in today. I think we're somewhere around here," he said, pointing at the map.

Beth's eyes traveled to the towns nearby and realized suddenly that Senoia, the town that had been closest to her family's farm, was only about 20 miles from Greenville. Maybe ten miles from where they were now.

"We're pretty close to the farm," she said quietly. "Do you think . . . do you think it would be safe to go back there?"

Daryl sighed, his eyes meeting hers. "I dunno, Beth. We could try. But I wouldn't get your hopes up. A herd the size of the one that drove us out coulda done serious damage to the house. Might not be much left."

Beth bit her lip and tried to quell the feeling of sadness that threatened to overcome her.

"I have to see it. I have to know."

Daryl held her gaze for a few moments and nodded.

"Okay. We'll go back there soon."

Beth blinked hard a few times and forced a smile. She cleared her throat and made her way back to the kitchen.

"Today was a good day," she said as she stirred the skillet and pulled it from the heat. "I'm gonna focus on that. We should be celebrating. Lots of good stuff happened today. We found a truck, got some goodies from town, figured out where we are, and finished getting the cabin fortified. This is the best day we've had in a long while."

"Yeah, it is," Daryl agreed with a half smile.

Beth served up the meal onto two plates, grabbing forks and bringing the meal into the living room where she set the plates on the coffee table. She sat down across from Daryl on one of the couches, and he pushed aside the map to eat his meal. She studied the map as she ate, estimating distances to nearby towns from the star Daryl had marked on the map as their location.

"We could try visiting Hogansville for supplies next," she suggested, pointing to it on the map. "I went there once for a fall festival with a friend of mine who had family there. It's bigger than Greenville, and I know they've gotta have a library."

"You're really set on finding a library," Daryl said.

"Well, now that we're sticking around here for a while and not runnin' for our lives so much, it would be nice to have some books to read. It's not like I can sit around watching TV. We have to go back to pre-TV forms of entertainment."

"Fuck, I miss TV," Daryl sighed, and Beth gave a small laugh.

"What was your favorite show?"

He shrugged. "Didn't really have one. Whatever was on, I guess."

Beth smiled, remembering watching shows like Gossip Girl with her friends or old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Maggie. She giggled to herself as she recalled the cheesy dialogue and overplayed drama that she couldn't help getting hooked on.

"What's so funny?" Daryl asked.

Beth shook her head and stood, grabbing both of their now-empty plates to take back to the kitchen.

"Just wondering how much ass Buffy Summers would be kicking in today's world."

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Can't say that Buffy was my cup of tea."

"Well she would be if she were here right now, I guarantee you that. She'd be one hell of an ally."

Daryl scoffed and stood and stretched. Beth quickly rinsed off their dinner plates and the skillet as Daryl made his way over to the front door.

"Time for watch already?" she asked. "It's barely past sundown."

"Nah, I'm just gonna do a quick perimeter check. Make sure no geeks are caught on our spikes."

Beth nodded and continued tidying up the kitchen while Daryl went outside. An idea suddenly popped into her mind and she began fishing around in one of the kitchen cabinets. When Daryl emerged back inside, Beth had the bottle of whiskey sitting on the counter.

"All clear," he stated. His eyes landed on the whiskey, and he arched his eyebrows at Beth.

"C'mon," she urged with a smile. "It's been a good day. Let's celebrate a little. I can't believe we still haven't drank any of this."

Daryl sighed, trying to think of reasons to turn her down, but coming up with none. The cabin was as secure as it could be, and Beth was right. It had been a good day.

"Okay," he agreed.

Beth's face lit up and Daryl was faced with the suspicion that she had, in fact, been planning to get him drunk since she found that damn bottle of whiskey. He watched her as she happily grabbed two glasses from one of the kitchen cabinets and made her way over to the coffee table with the glasses and whiskey in hand.

"Shouldn't get too drunk," Daryl muttered as he sat down on one of the couches, Beth climbing onto the couch next to him. "Just in case."

Beth ignored his comment and poured a decent amount of whiskey into each of the two glasses. She picked one of the glasses up and brought it to her nose, shivering as she smelled the whiskey's strong aroma.

"I've never had whiskey before," she stated. "But I guess since you were with me when I had my first drink, you already know that."

"It's different from moonshine. But since you were able to stomach the shine, I'm sure you'll do fine with whiskey."

Daryl grabbed the other glass and watched Beth's curious expression as she studied the drink in her hands.

"Well, cheers," she said with a smile, raising her glass to his with a soft clink. She took a tentative sip and winced, the liquor raising goosebumps on her skin.

"Ugh. It's better than moonshine, but it's still disgusting."

Daryl chuckled at her and took a sip from his own glass. He enjoyed the way the liquor burned down his throat. It had been too long since he had had whiskey. He watched Beth take a few more small sips and resisted the urge to laugh at the grimace she made each time she swallowed the booze.

"Would you be willing to play 'I Never' again?" Beth asked.

"That didn't turn out so well last time," Daryl muttered, feeling ashamed of how he had behaved during the game at the moonshine still.

"Yeah, but we were in a different state of mind then," Beth said. "We had a good day today, and we're in good spirits. As long as you don't go piss in the corner or drag me outside to shoot arrows at walkers, I think we'll be fine."

Daryl looked down at the glass in his hands, feeling uncomfortable. "Sorry about that," he said quietly.

"It doesn't matter. It's in the past now."

Daryl took a deep sip from his drink and met her gaze. "I'm still sorry."

"Like I said, it's in the past. So what do you say? I think you owe me a do-over."

Daryl nodded once. "All right," he agreed, already feeling slightly nervous as to how this would go.

Beth beamed at him, and he felt his chest tighten from the sight of her genuine smile. He took a sip of his drink in an attempt to ignore the feeling, even though it was clear that it wasn't going anywhere.

"I'll go first," Beth said, turning to face him and sitting cross-legged on the couch. "I've never had a beer before."

Daryl rolled his eyes and took a sip. "Okay, well I've never . . . used coconut shampoo before."

Beth grinned and took a sip of her own drink. "Hey, coconut shampoo at the end of the world is one of the best things there is! Umm, let's see . . . I've never gotten a tattoo."

"I've got a few," Daryl muttered, taking a drink. Beth knew about three of them; she had seen a large tattoo peeking out from his vest on his back at times, and she'd noticed the devil on his upper arm and the star on his hand. She wanted to ask him if he had more, and found herself imagining where they might be. She suddenly felt hot thinking about it, and she blinked and realized that Daryl was staring at her.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said, I've never been to a country music concert."

"Really?" Beth took a drink. "Okay. I've never ridden a motorcycle."

Daryl took a sip of his drink and suddenly wished he still had his bike so that he could change that. He imagined what it would be like to have Beth pressed against him on the bike with her arms wrapped around his middle and the engine vibrating beneath them. He cleared his throat and pushed the thoughts away.

"I've never painted my nails."

Beth drank. "I've never gotten into a bar fight."

Daryl drank, looking at her sheepishly when her eyes widened in triumph.

"He deserved it," he muttered. Beth giggled, her head already swimming from the whiskey. He hummed in thought, straightening up when he thought of a good one.

"I've never been baptized."

"Your parents didn't . . .?"

Daryl shook his head. "Didn't give a shit about the state of their own souls or mine. Don't matter though. I don't really believe in that stuff anyway."

Beth drank, knowing that he didn't want her pity, but she couldn't help feeling for him. She sighed, trying to think of something.

"Um . . . I've never done drugs?" her voice raised as if it were a question. She wasn't sure if it was a bad topic to bring up or not, but her clear-headedness was rapidly decreasing, and she had blurted the first thing that came to her head. Daryl raised an eyebrow at her and took a drink.

"Drugs were more Merle's thing than mine, but I tried a lot of things," he explained with a shrug. "Most of that stuff's not worth trying. So don't feel like you're missing out on anything."

Beth smiled at him. "Just 'cause I wanted to try drinking doesn't mean I want to try other stuff."

"Good," Daryl nodded. His head was starting to get fuzzy, and he tried not to focus on how beautiful Beth looked by the light of the fire, her blue eyes wide and staring at him. "Umm . . . I've never been on a date," he blurted out, instantly regretting revealing such a thing to her.

"Never?" Beth gawked at him. She took a drink, but her expression didn't falter. "Why not?"

"Never really met a girl worth takin' out on a date," he shrugged. "A real date, I mean."

"Seems like you were looking in the wrong place for a girl."

"Yeah, probably," Daryl sighed. Not only had he not met any worthwhile women who he wanted to date, but he had never had the confidence to ask a woman out. Meeting women at bars was one thing, but taking a woman to a nice dinner or a movie was something Daryl had never done.

"I've never had a one night stand," Beth said suddenly, her cheeks instantly blushing as she said it.

Daryl slowly took a drink, his eyes still on her as he did. "Once again, you ain't missin' out. You're too young for that shit anyway."

She frowned. "I'm nineteen. I'm sure if the world hadn't ended, I probably would have had one by now 'cause I'd be in college, you know."

Daryl shook his head at her. He didn't like thinking about her age. She was staring at him indignantly, and he was at a loss for words. He raised his glass and took a long sip as she continued.

"I'm not a kid," she said. "And it's not that far-fetched of an idea. I'm not a virgin."

Daryl choked on his whiskey and lowered his glass, staring at her in surprise. Beth had always seemed so innocent; he had never imagined her to not to be a virgin. It was close-minded of him to assume so, but he found it hard to think of her as anything but pure.

"When? Who?" he choked out, still coughing from the whiskey.

"Zach. And it was only a few times," she admitted. "I didn't even like him that much. But with the way things are, I just didn't know when I would get another opportunity. It just seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Damn," Daryl muttered. "Didn't think the kid had it in him."

"He didn't have much going for him. To be honest, it was pretty terrible," Beth said with a giggle. Daryl snorted. He imagined that much was true. Sex between Beth and Zach had probably been a horrible, fumbling affair, and he tried to squash his amusement at the thought of it.

"I think we've had about enough of this," Daryl stated, setting down his empty glass on the coffee table and pushing the bottle away from them.

"Yes, Mr. Dixon," Beth said with a smirk. She finished off the remaining whiskey in her glass and put it next to his on the table. The pair of them sat in silence for several moments, staring at the dying fire in the fireplace. The wind had picked up outside, but the cabin was cozy and warm.

"It's nice here," Beth said, breaking the silence. "I'm glad we found this place."

Daryl nodded. "I'm glad I found you."

"Me too," Beth said quietly, looking down at her hands and feeling almost overwhelmed with gratitude that she was here, in a warm, safe cabin with Daryl by her side instead of wherever she would have ended up if her kidnappers had succeeded.

"Don't know what I would've done if I'd lost you," Daryl said. He knew the booze was loosening his tongue, but he didn't care. "You . . . you're like sunshine, Beth. You make every day brighter."

Beth's gaze drifted to Daryl, a smile spreading across her lips at his words. She leaned closer to him, and Daryl stiffened, but didn't pull away. She slowly closed the distance between them, her lips brushing softly across his. For a moment, she let her lips linger there, and she soon felt the pressure of Daryl's lips returning the kiss. She sighed into his mouth and deepened the kiss, Daryl responding in kind and tangling his fingers in her hair. His tongue brushed against hers, and Beth moaned softly at the feeling. Daryl suddenly pulled away, as if he had been snapped out of a trance.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, removing his hands from her hair and pulling away from her. He stood from the couch and Beth frowned in confusion.

"What—?"

"This is wrong," he shook his head. "I can't do this with you. I'm almost twice your age."

Beth's expression turned angry. "Are you serious? You can't do this with me because of my age?"

"Think about it, Beth," Daryl sighed. "I'm almost forty. You're fuckin' nineteen. It's wrong."

"There's nothing wrong about it, Daryl," Beth snapped. "Whatever societal rules you're holding onto are obsolete, anyway. Think about what life is now, what we have to do to survive. Technically we murder and steal all the time. I don't think those rules apply anymore, do you?"

"I'm sorry," Daryl said again. "I just can't."

He turned and fled out the front door, closing it loudly behind him and leaving Beth staring at the closed door feeling angry and confused.

* * *

**Don't worry, y'all. Daryl will come round eventually. ;) Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I just want to take a moment to thank each of you who continue to review this story! Work is cracking the whip harder than ever, but your reviews give me much-needed smiles every day! You are all amazing. :)**

**I like this chapter and I hope you do too. Please enjoy and review!**

* * *

Beth's head was pounding when she woke. She groaned and sat up in bed with a stretch. The previous night came rushing back to her; she remembered drinking whiskey and playing "I Never" with Daryl, and then she remembered kissing him and how he had rejected her. She hadn't attempted to approach him the night before and instead went to bed fuming. It was the first time she hadn't gone to sleep curled up next to him since they had been at the cabin. She had laid in bed alone for quite some time before falling asleep, but she never heard Daryl come back inside. His rejection of her had hurt and made her feel angry, confused, and everything in between.

Beth sighed and flipped back the covers, pulling up the shoulder of the oversized flannel she had been wearing to sleep in. She opened the bedroom door and shuffled out into the cabin, which appeared to be empty. She made her way into the bathroom and began brushing her teeth, noticing that her eyes were puffy from restless sleep. When she finished brushing her teeth, she splashed some cold water on her face and went out into the living room, where she noticed that Daryl had scrawled a note on the back of a canned food label and had pinned the label to the door.

"Gone hunting," she read his chicken scratch handwriting aloud. She sighed. She didn't know if Daryl had slept at all the night before, and he was clearly avoiding her if he was leaving her notes to wake up to instead of telling her where he was going himself. It made her angry with him all over again. He was acting like a child, which was ironic considering that his objection to her young age had been what had started this mess.

She sat down heavily on one of the living room couches and laid down, tucking her legs into the flannel and curling into herself. A small part of her regretted kissing Daryl the night before, but only a small part. The whiskey had given her the courage to act on the desire she had been feeling for quite some time, and she didn't regret making her sentiments known. She just wished Daryl had handled it better. If he didn't want her, and not just because of her age, she needed to know.

Beth closed her eyes and tried to fall back asleep. As soon as Daryl returned from his hunt, she was going to make him talk about what had happened the night before. She wasn't going to let him run off again, and if he tried, there was going to be hell to pay. Beth was angry and needed answers.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," she muttered to herself, feeling the truth behind the words.

* * *

Daryl was avoiding the cabin. He had caught a fat opossum nearly an hour ago, but still he wandered through the woods, hardly even paying attention to any potential tracks on the ground. He knew he was just stalling before going back to the cabin to face Beth, but he wasn't ready for the conversation he knew she would want to have. She had thankfully let him be the night before, but he wasn't stupid. He knew Beth was angry and hurt, and it was unlikely that she would just let the whole thing go.

He sighed to himself and sat down against a tree to rest. It had been a long night. He had kept watch for several hours and had eventually passed out on the front porch. He woke around dawn to the sounds of a snarling walker that had been caught on some of the spikes, reaching for him. He had put down the ghoul and then decided to head out to the woods to hunt. Even though he knew he probably should have woken Beth and told her where he was going, he hadn't wanted to face her yet, so he had settled for a note scrawled on the back of a canned food label and took off for the solitude of the woods. He had been out in the woods for a few hours now, and he knew he should be heading back soon, but the thought filled him with dread.

His mind had been reeling all night. He had been caught off guard when Beth had kissed him, and he couldn't ignore the feelings of electricity and warmth that had accompanied the kiss. He had kissed her back, and he hadn't wanted to stop, but the little breathy moan she had given when his tongue had brushed against hers had jolted him back to reality and reminded him how wrong his desires were. Beth had argued that nothing about it was wrong, and she had made a good point about societal "rules" being obsolete in today's world, but it didn't stop Daryl from feeling like a perverted old man taking advantage of a young girl. It made him feel dirty, and it was a feeling that Daryl was having a very difficult time coping with.

Beth was beautiful, inside and out, and Daryl wanted her. But his desire for Beth came coupled with self-loathing and berating thoughts. Beth deserved so much more than what he could offer her. He was a bitter, damaged man. She deserved someone younger and kinder, and he had no idea why she seemed to want him. He wished that he was able to give himself to her like she wanted, but it was easier said than done. He had convinced himself that he was sick and predatory for wanting her, and it was a hard thing to overcome. How could he be with her romantically when every less-than-pure thought or touch made him feel guilty and dirty?

Daryl had also thought about Hershel and what the old man would have done if he knew about the way Daryl had been thinking of Beth. Daryl had respected Hershel greatly, and he felt as though it was a disservice to the man's memory to even think of defiling his youngest daughter. If Heaven existed, Daryl was sure Hershel was there staring down at him now demanding that Daryl keep his filthy hands off his daughter. Between Daryl's self-hatred for his feelings and his respect for Hershel's memory, he couldn't see how things could ever work out with Beth beyond friendship.

Daryl groaned and hauled himself to his feet. It was nearing mid-morning, and Beth was probably waiting for him to return. He had to bite the bullet and talk to her. He had avoided her for too long. With a heavy sigh, he began walking in the direction toward the cabin, his footsteps heavy with trepidation.

* * *

Beth was sick of waiting. She had been unable to fall back asleep, and after laying on the couch for what felt like hours, she finally got up and got dressed. She had tidied the cabin as much as possible, and she had been pacing in the living room for quite some time. She was starting to go stir crazy. She knew Daryl was avoiding her, and the longer she waited, the more annoyed she got. Finally she decided that she had to get out of the cabin for a bit. The empty cabin was just a constant reminder of Daryl's absence.

Beth made sure she had her Swiss army knife tucked in her pocket and shoved on her shoes. She decided to walk down to the stream that was a few hundred feet behind the cabin. It was a beautiful fall morning, and maybe the serenity of the stream would calm her. Beth closed the front door behind her and slipped through the gap in the spikes. She noticed the body of a walker that had been dragged away from the cabin a bit, which must have meant Daryl had killed it the night before. The bloody holes through its abdomen indicated that it had speared itself on the spikes, which made Beth feel better. At least the spikes were still working.

She soon reached the stream and sat down on a rock by the water's edge. Though her surroundings were peaceful, Beth still felt upset. She had run over the conversation she wanted to have with Daryl in her mind many times, and the anxiety over it only increased as time went on. She sighed heavily and bent down to remove her shoes, rolling up her jeans and placing her feet in the chilly water and enjoying the sensation of the water running over her bare feet. Her eyes traveled over the water and landed on a fairly large turtle sunning itself on a rock near the middle of the stream. She admired it for a few moments before realizing that the turtle could be a potential meal. She had no idea how to butcher a turtle, but she was sure Daryl could figure it out if he didn't know how already.

She wasn't sure how deep the water was near the middle of the stream where the turtle was sunbathing, but it looked as though she could get to if she used some of the rocks jutting out from the water as a walkway. Beth stood from where she was sitting and approached the first rock. She took a tentative step forward onto it, careful not to slip on the moss that coated its edges. She moved slowly as she approached the second rock so as not to scare off her prey. Her toes gripped the slick surface of the rock as she inched forward, her arms reaching out to grab the turtle and her brow furrowed in concentration.

Suddenly the snarl of a walker startled her out of her approach. Her eyes snapped up to the sound at the same time that her foot slipped on the wet rock upon which she stood. She caught a quick glimpse of the walker down the riverbank before she tumbled into the water. It was deeper than she had anticipated, and she emerged coughing and spluttering. The water went up past her waist, and it was freezing cold. Beth tried to catch her breath as she focused on the biter that was heading her way. As she tried to wade toward the opposite bank, she realized with horror that her foot was caught between the rocks under the water. She pulled hard, but her foot was wedged tight. She began to feel panicked as the walker entered the water and made its way toward her with its decaying arms reaching for her. No matter how hard she pulled, she was still caught. She resigned herself to fending off the ghoul in the water and frantically pulled her knife from her pocket, flipping open the blade and trying to steady her stance.

The walker was soon on her. Its jaws snapped at her, and she threw up her left arm to hold it at bay. With one foot caught, she was unsteady on her feet, and the force of the walker's attack made her stumble. She fell back against the rock she had fallen from and struggled to keep her head above the water and the walker's gnashing teeth away from her. She thrust her blade up and buried it in the biter's face, but her aim had been too low, the knife plunging into the rotter's cheek and accomplishing nothing. She frantically withdrew the blade and struck again, this time successfully piercing the walker's forehead and ending its second life. The weight of its body fell forward on her, pushing her back against the rock and underwater. She thrashed against the corpse, trying desperately to push it off of her. Her foot was still caught and she panicked, realizing she might drown if she couldn't free herself.

Suddenly the weight of the walker's corpse was lifted, and she burst to the surface, gasping for air. Daryl's face came into view on the rock above her, his expression panicked as he tossed the biter's body to the side and extended a hand to her to help her out of the water. Beth shook her head as she attempted to catch her breath.

"My foot's stuck," she said when she was able to speak. "It's wedged between some rocks underwater."

Daryl made to jump into the water, but Beth held up a hand to stop him.

"Let me see if I can dive under and see where it's stuck. You only have that one set of clothes, I don't want you getting them wet if you don't have to."

She took a deep breath and crouched down beneath the water's surface, opening her eyes and trying to see through the somewhat murky water. Her foot was caught in a narrow space between two rocks, but the fabric from her pants didn't seem to be caught on anything. Her foot was simply wedged in the tight space. Instead of pulling like she had been, she instead tried kicking forward, and immediately some of the pressure was relieved. She came up from underwater and stood before kicking forward again, this time freeing her foot from its trap.

"I got it," she said. She reached over to the walker's corpse and yanked her knife from its forehead and waded back toward the shore, Daryl carefully following alongside her on the rocks.

"How'd you fall in?" he asked.

"There was a turtle sunbathing on one of the rocks. I was trying to capture it for a meal," she said. "A walker came out of nowhere and startled me and I fell. I had to fight it off with my foot stuck in the rocks, and then its body crushed me after I killed it. You definitely have good timing. I could have drowned if you hadn't shown up when you did."

Daryl reached down to grab the dead opossum he had tossed on the riverbank, Beth grabbing her discarded shoes, and walked alongside her back toward the cabin. They slipped through the gap in the spikes and went inside, Beth's drenched clothing leaving a trail of dripping water on the floor. Daryl closed the door behind them and met Beth's eyes.

"I'm sorry for avoiding you," he said quietly. "I'm glad I came back when I did. Can't lose you."

Beth sighed. "What do you want, Daryl?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. What do you want with me? Sometimes you say things to me that make me think you want more than just my friendship, but you rejected me last night. What do you want?"

Daryl shrugged and avoided Beth's eyes. "I dunno."

"That's bullshit, Daryl. You do know. I know what I want. I know I want you. I want to be more than just your friend. Is that what you want, too?"

"It ain't just about what I want, Beth. That's not the issue."

"Then what is?" Beth demanded. "Is it just because of my age?"

Daryl didn't answer, just gave a half shrug of his shoulders.

"What if I was ten years older? Would you want to be with me then?"

"But you ain't ten years older, Beth. You're nineteen. I know you say social rules don't matter anymore and you're right, they don't, but that don't change the fact that I feel like a dirty old man every time I think about touchin' you."

"But that's not true. You aren't a dirty old man. It's not like you're taking advantage of me or anything like that. I want this, and there's nothing wrong with it."

Daryl sighed, his heart almost aching. "You don't think so, but I do. How can you expect me to be with you when I constantly feel guilty for thinking of you that way? Do you have any idea what that's like? To be constantly disgusted with yourself for what you feel? I can't give in to what I want, because then I'll just hate myself more."

Beth's frustrated expression softened, and she took a step toward him. "I'm sorry you feel that way," she said gently. "But it's all in your head. You've convinced yourself that wanting me is wrong, but you're the only one who thinks so. You have the power to change it."

He shook his head, wishing it were easier to change his way of thinking. Beth tentatively took another step forward and took his hands in hers.

"It's the end of the world, Daryl," Beth said quietly. "You shouldn't try to convince yourself that you're doing something wrong. Our lives could be short, and we don't really have time for that. You aren't doing anything wrong. And I'm not a child. I'm a woman, and I'm old enough to know what I do and don't want. I want you. There is _nothing _wrong with that."

Daryl nodded once, his throat feeling tight. How could Beth be so kind and understanding when he told her that thinking of her made him disgusted with himself? He didn't deserve her kindness or her desire.

"So will you at least admit to me that you want more with me?" she asked.

"Okay," he said, exhaling a long breath. "I do. I just . . . I can't just do a complete 180 and rewire the way my brain thinks. I'll try, but it's easier said than done."

Beth's face broke into a warm, genuine smile, and Daryl felt the tightness in his chest that he was starting to frequently feel when she smiled.

"Good. That's better than anything I was hoping for," she said. She stepped away from him and peeled the wet shirt from her body.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Daryl asked, instinctively taking a step back from her.

"Just getting out of these wet clothes," Beth said as she tugged off her soaked jeans. She stood before him wearing nothing but a pair of black lacy panties and a matching black bra, looking more womanly than Daryl had ever seen her.

"Beth . . ." Daryl's heart was racing as she took a step closer to him. He tried not to look at her body, but he felt unable to draw his eyes away from her.

"See? I'm a grown woman," she said. "And however you're feeling when you look at me is not wrong. You need to start telling yourself that."

Daryl stood frozen to the spot, torn between his impulse to bolt away from her and to keep staring at her. She took another step toward him and stood directly in front of him. Before he could stop her, she turned her face up toward him and pressed her lips to his in a soft kiss. Daryl kept his hands firmly at his sides, his hands curled into tight fists. He tentatively kissed her back, but kept his response as innocent as he could. She pulled away after a moment, her wide blue eyes shining and her lips spreading into a smile.

"You can touch me," she said softly, glancing down at Daryl's tightly clenched fists that remained at his sides.

"Can't," he muttered, his voice hoarse.

"Why not?"

"Cause if I start touchin' you, I won't be able to stop."

Beth felt a heat in the pit of her stomach upon hearing his words, and it took all her self-control not to immediately press her body against his.

"Maybe that's not a bad thing," she whispered.

Daryl shook his head and took a step back from her.

"I can't," he said again. "Not yet. I'm tryin' here, Beth. You gotta give me time to adjust to this whole idea."

Beth sighed, but nodded in understanding.

"Okay," she said. "Whatever you need."

She stepped away from him and walked away into the bedroom to change into some dry clothes. As much as she needed Daryl to touch her, to possess her completely, she would gladly wait if it meant she could eventually have him. However, the throbbing she felt between her legs at the thought was impossible to ignore. She just hoped she would be able to wait as long as Daryl needed to feel comfortable with her. She wasn't usually impatient, but Beth wasn't sure how long her resolve would last.

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**Now we're getting somewhere . . . ;) Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Happy Friday, everyone! It has been a long week! Please enjoy and review! :)**

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Beth stirred in her sleep, squirming against him and nuzzling her head further up his chest. It was shortly after dawn, and Daryl had been awake for about twenty minutes, just watching the beautiful blonde who was asleep in his arms. She had one leg thrown over his own, and though the flannel she always wore to sleep in had ridden up to expose her thighs, Daryl did his best not to focus his attention there. Instead he absentmindedly played with the ends of her hair and marveled at how serene she looked while sleeping. He was unable to move without waking her, but Daryl was in no hurry to leave the bed.

It was the third morning in a row that he had woken up with Beth this way. He knew it probably wasn't wise to forgo taking watch overnight, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Beth after she fell asleep. Before Beth, Daryl had never experienced falling asleep with a woman, let alone waking up with one, and he had to admit that he liked the feeling of it. His encounters with women had usually been drunken one-night-stands, and he and his partners never hung around afterward. Daryl was still in awe that a woman would want to cuddle next to him all night. He wanted to bask in the feeling for as long as it lasted.

He was getting better at telling himself that it wasn't wrong to be with Beth, but it was still difficult to let go of the thoughts completely. He couldn't believe how patient Beth was being with him. It just made him think that he didn't deserve her even more, no matter how many times she told him that wasn't true. She was so positive and so beautiful inside and out, and Daryl couldn't believe that such a woman wanted him. She was patiently nurturing him and steering his thoughts in a more positive direction, which was also very new to Daryl.

He still hadn't allowed himself to take things further than just innocent kisses and touches, however. Beth was always the one to initiate things, and Daryl always stopped her before things got heated. He wasn't ready for that level of affection just yet. Despite the improvements in his thoughts, he knew that if he allowed himself to touch her the way he wanted to, he would end up taking two steps back and being disgusted with himself. Every time her lips began to press harder against his, he imagined throwing her against the nearest wall and fucking her ruthlessly, and the thoughts of dominating her in such a way still made him feel guilty and ashamed. His desire felt like a caged wild animal that, once released, couldn't be controlled, and the thought almost scared him. He was only just now getting used to showing innocent affection to Beth; he certainly wasn't ready to take things further. He was afraid of how far he would push things, and how much his mind would degrade himself for it afterward. He knew Beth wanted him to take things further, and he noticed the little disappointed sighs she gave when he pulled away from her, but he couldn't give in yet. Once he did, there would be no going back.

Beth stirred again in her sleep, bringing Daryl out of his thoughts. Her eyes opened slowly, and Daryl felt a warmth in his chest as a small smile began to spread across her face as she looked up at him. He smiled back at her.

"Morning," he said, his voice still a little rough from sleep.

"Morning."

Beth sat up and stretched. She glanced to the curtained window and observed the early morning sunlight leaking in around the edges of the curtain.

"Is it early?" she asked. Daryl nodded.

"Bout half an hour past dawn."

Beth nodded and crawled off the bed. She went to the dresser and pulled out some clothing to wear for the day. She began to unbutton the flannel to change, prompting Daryl to awkwardly clear his throat and stand from the bed.

"Gonna take a piss," he muttered, quickly exiting the room before she could remove the flannel. She had been changing in front of him shamelessly the past few days, and Daryl always tried to leave the room before he could see anything. It was hard enough not touching her when she was fully clothed, but seeing her in her lacy underthings drove him crazy. He realized that Beth was probably changing in front of him on purpose, as if she had an agenda to force him to see her body in an attempt to change his mind about touching her. But Daryl hadn't given in yet, despite how much he wanted to.

After relieving himself, Daryl grabbed one of the remaining bags of jerky from the pharmacy and tore it open, taking a few strips out to serve as a meager breakfast for him and Beth. They needed to find more food soon, and not just meat he could bring home from hunting. They needed fruits and vegetables. They were planning to visit Hogansville soon, but Beth also wanted to go back to the farm, and Daryl had realized the night before that the farmhouse might still have a decent stash of canned food if no one else had raided it since their group had been driven out. During their stay at the farm, they had always been well fed, which meant the farm had to have had a decent supply of food. If the farmhouse was still standing, it would be a mutually beneficial visit—Beth could visit her family's former home for closure, and they could possibly end up with more supplies.

Beth emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed and with her hair pulled into a ponytail. Daryl handed her a few strips of jerky, which she graciously accepted.

"Was thinkin' we could try goin' to the farm today," he suggested.

"Really? I would like that."

Daryl nodded. "I was also hopin' that maybe there's still some food there we could take. Assuming no one else has looted it already."

Beth's eyes lit up. "Oh my gosh, you're right," she said excitedly. "Patricia was always really into canning, and we had a bunch of canned fruits and vegetables in the cellar. I don't think anyone would have been able to get into the cellar. Daddy always kept it locked, but I know where the key is."

"Why'd he lock it?" Daryl wondered.

Beth looked at him a little sheepishly. "Even after he invited everyone to move into the house, he still didn't completely trust everyone with the food. He wanted to be the one to ration it out. So he kept the cellar locked to prevent people from taking anything."

Daryl smiled in memory of Hershel, silently thanking him for his paranoia, as it would now work out to his and Beth's benefit.

"Okay. Let me do a quick perimeter check and then we'll head out."

Beth finished her share of jerky and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth while Daryl checked the perimeter. Even though it may not have been the safest idea, she enjoyed that he had been staying with her throughout the night instead of taking watch. She also had to admit that she loved waking up with him in the morning, rather than being woken a few hours before dawn to take her turn for watch. So far, the spikes outside the cabin had been doing their job well. No walkers had made it past the spikes, and even if they did, they had a perimeter alarm that circled the entire cabin now, and that would alert them to potential threats. She hoped Daryl would continue to spend the nights with her.

"All clear," Daryl called as he came back inside. Beth finished brushing her teeth and went out into the living room. She grabbed her backpack, which contained necessities in case of any potential troubles on the road, and slung it over her shoulder. She also grabbed the map that was still on the coffee table from several days before.

"Ready?"

Daryl nodded and held open the front door for her, closing it behind them. They made their way over to the truck and Daryl hotwired it to get it started. The engine was loud in the quiet woods, and they were soon on their way.

"Head east once we get to the road," Beth instructed as she followed the route on the map with her finger. "Then when we get to highway 85, we'll take that north about 5 miles until we get to the farm."

They drove in silence, and Beth stared out the window feeling more nervous as they drove on. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to find at the farm. She hoped it would remain intact so that she could give the place a proper goodbye. She also wanted to find a family photo to take with her, so that she could always have a picture of those who were no longer with her.

As Daryl finally turned down the road that led to the farm, Beth took deep breaths to try to quell her anxiety. She noticed Daryl glancing at her often, and she tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. He reached into her lap and took one of her hands in his, and Beth felt the tightness in her chest ease a bit. Finally the farmhouse came into view, and Beth exhaled in relief to see that it was still standing.

Daryl parked the truck near the front door. He saw a few walkers shambling toward the truck by the charred remains of the barn, but at the present moment, they appeared to be the only immediate threat. He gave Beth's hand a reassuring squeeze before dropping her hand and exiting the truck, crossbow at the ready. Beth slowly climbed out of the passenger side and looked around, almost as if in a daze. She followed Daryl toward the three walkers that were heading in their direction. He swiftly killed one of them with his crossbow, and each of them pulled out their knives and made quick work of the other two.

"Don't see any more around, but that don't mean they ain't there. Keep your guard up," Daryl said as he retrieved his arrow from the ghoul's skull. Beth nodded, keeping her knife open and in her grasp as she followed Daryl back toward the house.

They quietly climbed the porch steps and approached the front door, which wasn't completely latched shut from their hasty escape all those months ago. Beth reached for the door, her hand shaking a bit, and pushed it open. Daryl held up a hand to stop her from entering and knocked loudly on the door frame. Nothing made itself known inside the house, and Daryl cautiously entered, his crossbow ready. Beth tentatively followed him inside.

Everything looked exactly as she remembered it, only now it was covered in a layer of dust. Beth swallowed hard as memories began to run through her mind. They were happy memories, but seeing the house this way now made her feel sad. She followed Daryl from room to room until the first floor of the house was deemed clear. Beth wandered into the kitchen, her mind flashing with images of baking with her mother and of the family dinners her father had always insisted on when Maggie and Shawn were home from college. She sat down heavily at the small kitchen table, unable to control the tears that spilled down her cheeks.

Daryl moved from where he had been watching her in the doorway to stand beside her. He awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder, unsure how to comfort her. Beth leaned into him and wiped the tears from her face.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "It's just hard to see it like this."

"I know," Daryl said quietly.

"But I'm glad it's still here." Beth sniffed and stood from the kitchen table, trying to compose herself. "I'm glad I got to see it again." She made her way over to the kitchen counter next to the sink and grabbed a ceramic jar that held kitchen utensils. She emptied the utensils onto the counter and retrieved the key that was hidden at the bottom of the jar.

"Key to the cellar," she said, handing it to Daryl. "We can go down there in a minute. But I want to go upstairs first. I want to grab a few things."

Daryl nodded and put the key in his pocket. He made his way over to the staircase and gently pushed Beth behind him.

"Let me go first," he said, hoisting up his crossbow. "Just in case."

She nodded and followed him up the stairs, trying to be quiet despite how loudly each step creaked from their weight. When they reached the top of the stairs, Daryl banged loudly on the wall. The upstairs was silent, however, and they cautiously moved forward. Beth stepped around Daryl and entered her room, a sad smile on her face from the familiarity of the room. Daryl stood watching her from the doorway as she looked around. She looked at the jewelry scattered on her dresser, the books on the shelf in the corner, and the photos of her friends around the room.

"All this feels like it was from a lifetime ago," she said softly. "I feel like I don't even know the girl whose room this was."

"Well, it's like you said," Daryl muttered, his voice quiet. "You ain't a girl anymore. You're a woman."

Beth turned to him, her sad smile turning brighter and reaching her eyes.

"You're right. That's a good way to look at it."

She went to her bookshelf and grabbed a few of her favorites, as well as a deck of cards, a ring that had been her mother's, and a pair of what used to be her favorite PJ pants. The weather was turning colder, and she knew she would be grateful for them when winter hit. She took a final glance around her room and sighed, mentally saying goodbye to the girl she had been when she had lived here last. She left the room and closed the door behind her.

"I just wanna grab one more thing from the dining room, then we can go check out the cellar," she said, heading back down the stairs. She walked into the dining room and smiled upon seeing the framed family photo on the wall. It had been taken about a year before the turn, and they all looked so happy. She pulled the photo off the wall and tucked it beneath her arm, trying not to start crying again at the memory of her deceased family.

"I'm gonna put this stuff in the truck," she said. Daryl nodded and followed her outside, keeping his eyes on alert for more walkers as she stashed her things in the truck. Then he followed her around the house to the cellar doors out back, fishing the key out of his pocket to unlock them. He hauled the doors open and descended into the dark cellar, whistling upon seeing the many jars of canned food lining the shelves in the cellar.

"Jackpot," he muttered, and Beth grinned.

"Told you Patricia was really into canning."

They both began eagerly piling jars into their arms and carrying them all back to the truck. It took five trips to clear out the cellar, and Beth already couldn't wait to bust into one of the jars of canned peaches.

"It feels so strange to be looting my own house," she said.

"Then don't think of it as looting. Think of it as comin' back for things you left behind."

Beth smiled at him and looked toward the house.

"I'm just gonna go say goodbye," she said. "Then we can be on our way."

Daryl nodded and leaned against the truck, watching her as she wandered back up the front porch steps and inside the house. Beth stood in the entryway, the silence of the home deafening to her. The house had always been so full of life and love. She missed her family and the good times they'd had in this house, but at the same time, she wasn't sure she even wanted that life back. As she thought of the man outside waiting for her who was quickly becoming such an important part of her life, Beth just felt thankful that she had such wonderful memories to carry with her.

She smiled sadly, taking one last look at the house she had grown up in.

"Goodbye," she whispered, bidding farewell both to the house and to the girl she had been. She turned around and walked slowly back outside, shutting the door tight behind her. She took a deep breath and decided to focus on what lay ahead, not what she had left behind.

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**This chapter was a little fluffy, but be patient, dear readers. The smut you crave is just around the corner. ;)**


	9. Chapter 9

**For all of you who have been patiently awaiting delicious Bethyl smut, this chapter is for you. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go take a cold shower . . .**

**Enjoy! ;)**

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Beth leant down and pointed to some tracks in the dirt. She looked to Daryl, who was close behind her.

"Rabbit, right?" she asked.

Daryl nodded. "See if you can follow it."

Beth cautiously proceeded forward, quite conscious of how close Daryl was behind her. It would be so easy to stop in her tracks and grind her ass back into him. She blinked hard and tried to concentrate on following the indentations in the soil. It had been her idea for him to keep teaching her how to track, so she should really be focusing on the task at hand.

It had now been five days since Beth had managed to get Daryl to admit he wanted something more with her. In that five days, he was doing much better with innocent displays of affection, and he was even starting to initiate some kisses. However, Daryl still hadn't allowed things to go past chaste kissing. He had hardly even kissed her with tongue, and Beth knew he was trying as hard as he possibly could to hold back. She could feel how tense he became when they got close. His muscles tightened up, and the tension in his very aura was palpable. But still he kept his hands off her body and stopped things when she tried to become more passionate.

Beth Greene had never known what it was like to feel truly sexually frustrated until now. She was constantly distracted with fantasies of Daryl pinning her to the nearest tree or wall and having his way with her. She throbbed between her legs almost every time she looked at him. It was driving her crazy. She had never wanted anyone as badly as she wanted Daryl.

She heard Daryl muttering something indiscernible behind her, his gravelly voice making a shiver run down her spine. She imagined how it would feel if he suddenly pulled her against his chest and ran his hands over her body, his erection grinding against her backside. She almost moaned aloud at the thought.

"Where you goin'?" Daryl's voice startled Beth out of her fantasy.

"Uh . . . what?"

"Tracks go this way," Daryl said with a frown. "Damn girl, where's your mind today?"

Beth felt a blush creep up her cheeks and tried to force a smile.

"Sorry. I'm just . . . distracted."

Daryl rolled his eyes and moved past her. "Why don't you let me take the lead? We need to catch this thing. Storm's comin'."

"How can you tell?" Beth asked, looking up at the sky, which was mostly clear.

"You haven't noticed the wind pickin' up? Or how the temperature has dropped in the past twenty minutes?"

Beth shrugged, looking up and noticing the way the trees were indeed swaying more strongly than before, and the chill that had suddenly appeared in the air. She squinted in the direction the wind was coming from and, sure enough, she saw dark clouds in the distance.

"You really have been distracted today," Daryl muttered, continuing on in hopes of catching the rabbit before the storm hit.

Beth followed behind him and tried her hardest not to think of doing naughty things with Daryl and instead tried to focus on following the tracks and keeping her footsteps quiet. After a short while Daryl held up a hand to stop her, pointing silently to the large rabbit that sat in front of them about thirty feet away. Daryl slowly raised his crossbow and aimed carefully. When he released the bolt, it sailed through the air and hit its target perfectly. Daryl grinned and stood to collect his kill.

"All right, now that we've got dinner, we better get back."

Beth nodded and turned around to head back to the cabin. The light from the setting sun was shining on the approaching dark clouds and making them look darker and more eerie. The wind started to pick up more force as they walked, and Beth could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. The clouds were rapidly closing in on them, and Beth could just see the cabin in the distance when the skies began to open, first a few fat raindrops and then suddenly hundreds falling on them within a few seconds. Beth gave a little shriek and began to run toward the cabin with Daryl on her heels.

By the time they reached the screened in porch, both of them were soaked through. They hurried inside and closed the door behind them as the rain and wind intensified. Beth giggled as she looked at Daryl with his wet hair drooping around his face. He smirked at her and swept his wet hair out of his eyes, tossing the rabbit onto the kitchen counter.

"We should have headed out earlier in the day," he said. "I thought we could make it back before the rain."

"We almost did," Beth grinned at him.

She shuffled over to him and pulled him into a wet hug. Beth stood on her tip toes and brought her lips to Daryl's. He kissed her back softly, keeping his arms wrapped around her. Images of each of them stripping each other of their wet clothing flashed through Beth's mind, and she kissed him deeper, her lower body grinding into his just slightly. Daryl's hands dropped to her waist, and Beth almost thought he was about to slip his hands beneath her shirt, but instead he gently pushed her away.

"We should change outta these wet clothes," he muttered gruffly.

Beth sighed and resisted the urge to scream in frustration. She didn't want to pressure Daryl into doing something he didn't want to do, but Beth had needs, needs that he was refusing to even consider meeting. She realized that Daryl had only recently started thinking of her as a woman rather than a girl, but she wished he would treat her like one. Otherwise, Beth was likely to go crazy.

She said nothing to him and walked away into the bedroom to change. She peeled the wet clothes from her body, including her bra and underwear. She stood naked in front of the dresser, almost hoping that Daryl would walk in at that very moment. Beth quickly pulled on the pair of white lace panties and opted to wear the oversized flannel that she had begun to love wearing as her sleep shirt. She buttoned up the flannel and grabbed a pair of pants and a plain white undershirt for Daryl to wear while his clothes dried.

"These are going to be too big for you, but they'll have to do," she said as she went back out into the living room with the clothes in hand.

"Thanks," Daryl said as he accepted the clothing.

"Hey, you know what? You should let me wash your clothes. Since you need to get out of them anyway. They're absolutely filthy and in desperate need of a wash," Beth suggested.

Daryl nodded. He couldn't deny that his clothes were quite dirty. It had been ages since they had been washed. He set the dry clothes on the couch and looked to Beth, almost if he expected her to leave so he could change. When she stayed put, he sighed and reluctantly pulled his shirt and vest from his head. Beth bit her lip and tried not to stare at his bare chest. It was the first time she had seen him shirtless, and it was doing nothing to quell her fantasies of him. Her eyes traveled down his body to his waist, where his hands unfastened his pants and tugged them down. He stepped out of them and stood before her in only his boxers. He cleared his throat at her and she blinked, realizing that she had been obviously staring. She blushed and quickly headed into the bathroom to start filling the tub to wash the laundry. The heat in the pit of her stomach from the sight of Daryl nearly naked was driving her insane.

A few moments later, Daryl appeared in the bathroom door with his dirty clothes in hand. The dry clothing was definitely too big and hung loosely on him, but it would do. Beth took the wet clothes from him and tossed them into the bathtub. She stepped around him without a word and went to retrieve some of her own clothing to wash and the bar of laundry soap. Daryl watched her moving about with a concentrated expression on his face.

"I've been thinkin'," he said suddenly as Beth knelt down to begin scrubbing the clothing.

"About what?"

"About how long we should stay here."

Beth looked up, worried he would say that they should move on soon. They had been at the cabin for about two weeks, but she wasn't anywhere near ready to move on. Living in the cabin with Daryl had made her the happiest she had been since before they had lost the prison, and she didn't want to give it up yet.

"How long do you want to stay?" Beth asked softly.

Daryl shrugged. "I know finding our people is still important to you. But the fact is that winter will be here soon, and this cabin . . . it's a pretty good thing for us. It's a roof over our heads, and the fireplace and the wood stove can keep us warm. We've got an all right defense system in place, and as long as no big herds pass through, I think that'll hold us just fine."

Beth nodded in agreement, hoping this was going where she thought it was.

"Are you saying you think we should stay here for the winter?"

"I wanna know what you think," Daryl said. "But yeah. I think it could be a good idea."

"Me too," Beth said quickly. "I mean, I think it's a good idea."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I like it here. Living here with you makes me happy," Beth said with a smile, and Daryl returned the gesture.

"Me too."

Beth felt a warmth in her chest. She was relieved that they wouldn't be leaving the cabin anytime soon. She would get to continue having Daryl to herself for a while, and she loved the sound of that. She turned back to the laundry in the tub with a smile on her face.

"I'll go roast up that rabbit while you do this," Daryl offered, and Beth nodded in agreement. She was willing to play house like this with Daryl for as long as he would let her.

* * *

The rain continued to come down outside throughout the night, and Beth grew sleepy as she read one of her books by the fire. Daryl was working on crafting new arrows from wood, and the steady sound of his knife shaving along the wood was slowly lulling her into sleepiness. They had eaten a good meal and had spent an hour or two relaxing by the fire while the storm raged outside. Beth wondered if the storm would rile up the walkers, but so far they hadn't had any incidents, and Beth hoped things would remain that way.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Beth said, standing from the couch and stretching. She noticed Daryl glance at her thighs when her flannel rode up, but he quickly averted his eyes.

"I'll be in in a little while," he muttered. "Wanna finish a few more arrows."

"Okay."

Beth leaned toward him and placed an innocent kiss on his lips before shuffling away into the bedroom. She closed the door partway so that she could still hear the rhythmic sound of Daryl's knife sliding across the wood as he worked and fell onto the bed. She closed her eyes, but instead of falling asleep, her mind once again began to race with images of Daryl naked and inside her. She imagined what it would feel like to have his rough hands on her skin while he made love to her, and she throbbed between her legs again. Beth sighed in frustration. She listened to make sure she could still hear Daryl working in the living room before slipping her hand into her panties and finding her throbbing center.

She began rubbing circles on her clit, closing her eyes and imagining that Daryl was on top of her and running his cock against her slit before sliding inside. She bit her lip and imagined that he had her hands pinned above her head. Her fingers worked her clit faster as she pictured Daryl's dick sliding in and out of her and fucking her hard. She let loose a small moan at the thought, and the sound suddenly brought her back to the present. She opened her eyes and saw with a start that Daryl was standing in the doorway watching her, frozen to the spot and his mouth open in shock. Beth gasped in surprise; she hadn't even heard him come in.

"S-sorry," Daryl stammered, immediately turning to flee back to the living room.

"Wait!" Beth called out, withdrawing her hand from her panties and sitting up abruptly. "Please don't go."

Beth could see Daryl's jaw tighten as he looked to the floor, rooted to the spot.

"Please," she said again, reaching out for him.

Daryl slowly moved to the edge of the bed and stood staring down at her. Beth rose to her knees to be level with him and moved close to him. She knew her skin was flushed, but she could also feel the heat coming from Daryl's skin. His eyes were dark, and the blue of his eyes was being overtaken by his dilated pupils. Beth reached for him and pulled him close to her, leaning her forehead against his.

"Touch me," she whispered. "Please, Daryl."

Beth could feel how tense he was, and he slowly raised his arms and ran his fingers through her hair. He tentatively pressed his lips against hers, kissing her softly for several moments. His kisses slowly grew more passionate, and Beth could feel his grip gradually tightening on her hair. Suddenly, it was as if a dam inside him broke. His body melted against hers, his kisses suddenly possessive and rough. Beth moaned into the kiss, and a low growl emerged from deep in his throat. Beth pulled Daryl down on top of her on the bed, his lips still dominating hers with bruising force.

Beth ground her lower body into Daryl's, causing his kiss to become even more aggressive. He moved to lay beside her and ran his calloused fingertips along the smooth skin of her thighs. His touch wandered under the flannel, and Beth felt a surge of heat when his hand palmed one of her small breasts, giving it a soft squeeze. She quickly fumbled with the buttons on her flannel and tore them open, exposing herself to him. She shrugged out of the sleeves and lay before him in only her panties. Daryl began kissing down her neck and chest, his facial hair scratching her skin, and Beth let out a small moan when his kisses reached her breasts. He pulled one of her small hardened nipples into his mouth and ran his tongue over it, while at the same time running a rough hand down her body and slipping it beneath the waistband of her panties. He slid his fingers over her slit, feeling how wet she was, before roughly tugging the panties down her legs and throwing them to the floor.

Beth slipped her hands under Daryl's shirt and began tugging it upwards, feeling the need to even the score since she was now completely naked next to him. Daryl removed his mouth from her breasts to allow her to tear the shirt over his head, and then he brought his lips back to hers. His hand slid down her body and between her legs, and Beth gave a shuddering gasp into the kiss as he slid one finger inside her. He slowly moved his finger in and out a few times before sliding her wetness up to her clit, where he began moving his fingertip in small, tight circles, using her juices as lubrication. Beth felt as though her entire body was buzzing from his touch, and she began to grow lightheaded as Daryl continued to circle her swollen nub. She felt the pleasure beginning to build as his ministrations continued, periodically dipping his finger back inside her for more lubrication. Beth broke from the kiss and threw her head back, unable to contain her breathy moans as Daryl brought her closer to her release. Finally, she reached her peak, the pleasure exploding between her legs. Daryl pressed down hard on her clit as she rode out her orgasm, waves of dizziness now overcoming her.

As soon as she felt that she could breathe again, Beth's hands urgently tore at Daryl's pants. She unfastened them and quickly tugged them down, and Daryl assisted her, kicking off the pants and leaving him now just as naked as she. Her eyes took in the sight of his erection, and she immediately noticed that he was quite a bit larger than Zach had been, which gave her a bit of a thrill. She wrapped a hand around the base of his cock and slowly moved her hand up and down a few times, enjoying the look on Daryl's face as she gripped him. He didn't allow her to grasp him for long however, and he soon seized her wrist and pressed both of her hands above her head, pinning both wrists easily with one hand. He moved himself between her legs and stared down at her, the intensity of his expression filling Beth with anticipation and need.

Daryl aligned himself with her entrance. He maintained eye contact with her as he slowly slid inside her, filling her all the way to the hilt. Beth felt herself stretching to accommodate him, but the feeling was amazing. He let out a long breath once he was completely sheathed inside her.

"God, Beth, you're so fuckin' tight," he groaned.

He allowed her a moment to adjust to him before slowly starting to move, withdrawing himself almost to the tip before slowly pushing back in. He released her hands and Beth buried them in his hair, crashing her lips to his as he slowly moved inside her. She had never felt so filled, so complete, and she began to raise her hips to meet his as he moved. Daryl began to increase his pace, and he began to thrust into her with more force. Beth moaned each time he hit a sweet spot deep inside her, a spot that she hadn't known existed until now. He placed a hand under her ass and lifted her up slightly, allowing him to fuck her even deeper than before. Beth felt a pressure building inside her as he pounded into her.

"Don't stop," she commanded as the pressure continued to build.

Daryl increased his pace again, his cock hitting that delicious spot inside her over and over. Beth felt herself on the precipice of orgasm, her toes curling and her eyes squeezing shut. After a few more thrusts, Beth's climax exploded, sending waves of intense pleasure radiating from her center throughout her entire body. She felt her walls clenching tight around him as she came, and another wave of dizziness washed over her. Before she could even come down from her orgasm, Daryl pulled out of her and finished on her belly.

Beth panted in an attempt to catch her breath. Daryl grabbed the white undershirt he had been wearing and used it to wipe his cum from her stomach, his own breathing just as labored as hers. He flung the shirt to the floor and collapsed beside her on the bed. Beth realized that they hadn't used a condom, but at that moment, she didn't care. Her ears were ringing and her body felt as though it were humming.

"Oh my god, Daryl," she panted. "That was . . . I don't even have words for how amazing that was."

Daryl smirked at her and propped himself up on his elbow to look at her.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"God no," Beth shook her head. "In fact, that was the first time I've ever . . . you know . . . during sex."

Daryl frowned at her. "Zach never . . .?"

She shook her head. "No. I mean, he got me off in other ways, but until now, I never actually came inside like that. I didn't think I could. _Cosmo_ said some women can't, and I just assumed . . ."

Daryl exhaled and shook his head at her. "You sure you're not just bullshittin' me to boost my ego?" he smirked at her.

"I'm serious, Daryl!" Beth exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face. "I didn't know it was possible to feel that good."

Daryl smiled down at her, and Beth sat up and straddled him. She grinned down at him.

"Let's do it again."

"Christ, woman," Daryl groaned. "I ain't as young as you. Gimme a minute to catch my breath."

Beth giggled and rolled off of him. She snuggled into his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. The rain was still pouring outside, and thunder crashed around the cabin. Beth couldn't wipe the smile from her face. She couldn't remember a time in her life that she had _ever _felt this happy.

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**I hope this scene satisfied your lust for smut! There will be more scenes like this as the story progresses, so please review and let me know what you think! ;)**


	10. Chapter 10

**This is a short chapter. I just wanted to explore how each character is feeling after their "interaction" in the last chapter. Sorry it's not as long as usual!**

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Sunlight spilled into the room through a gap in the bedroom curtains, and Daryl's eyes fluttered open and immediately landed on a pair of wide blue eyes staring directly at him. Beth's face broke into a wide smile.

"Morning," she greeted him warmly.

Daryl blinked and noticed that both of them were still completely naked, and memories from the night before came rushing back to him. He self-consciously tugged the blanket up further on his body to cover more of his bare chest, and Beth arched an eyebrow at him.

"After everything that happened last night, you're seriously concerned about covering up?"

Daryl cleared his throat and shrugged one shoulder. His eyes drifted down to Beth's small bare breasts, which she was making no effort to hide. The early morning light made them look even more perfect than they had been in the darkness of the night before, and he had to make a serious effort to tear his eyes away from her chest. The sex the night before had been the best he had had in years, perhaps even the best sex he had ever had. He knew Beth had enjoyed herself, she had made that much clear, but he still couldn't stop the nagging guilty thoughts from surfacing in the back of his mind. He found himself torn between being disappointed in himself for defiling her in such a way and wanting to do it all over again.

"Beth, about last night . . ." he began.

"You don't regret it, do you?" Beth quickly asked, her happy expression turning into a frown. "Because I don't. Not at all. And you shouldn't either."

"I dunno," Daryl muttered, not meeting her eyes. "I lost control. I know you said you liked it, but—"

"But nothing. Daryl, last night was the best night of my life. And I'm not exaggerating. Please don't take that away from me."

Daryl eyed her skeptically, but her large blue eyes were full of nothing but honesty.

"This is really what you want?" he asked her quietly. "You really want this with me?"

"Yes. Absolutely. You're pretty stupid if you haven't already figured that out," she teased, giving him a playful nudge. Daryl couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his lips. "Nothing we did last night was wrong. And you better shake off any thoughts that are telling you otherwise, because I'm going to want to be intimate with you as much as possible."

Daryl's grin grew wider and he shook his head. "You're crazy."

Beth grinned and sat up, the blanket falling to her waist and exposing her breasts more to him. Her blonde hair was down and untamed, and the way her smile lit up her big blue eyes made Daryl's chest feel tight. She leaned over him and pressed a kiss to his lips. Daryl reached up and tangled his fingers in her wild hair, returning the kiss with as much fervor as he dared. Memories from the night before were already prompting his body to react to the kiss. He tried not to think about how tight she had been and the sounds she had made as she reached her climax. And the sight of her touching herself that he had unwittingly walked in on . . . it was the sexiest thing Daryl had ever seen. Everything about Beth now seemed erotic and intoxicating.

Daryl reluctantly broke the kiss and stared into Beth's eyes, willing his body to calm down. She pulled away and sat back on her heels with a smile on her face. She looked as though she were glowing, and Daryl couldn't believe that he had been the cause of it. He didn't understand what Beth saw in him or why she seemed so happy. It was hard for him to believe that he deserved such a woman, but if he was what Beth wanted, he was going to try his hardest to do right by her.

Beth slipped out of the blankets and stood. She stretched, and Daryl had to force his eyes away from her lithe body if he had any hopes of calming his own body down. She went to the dresser and pulled out some clothes.

"I'm gonna shower," she said. "Then I'm thinkin' we should have some canned peaches for breakfast."

Daryl smiled at her and nodded in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan."

He watched her leave the room, his eyes traveling to her firm, round ass as she walked away. He groaned and threw his forearm over his eyes. It had already been hard enough not to constantly think about Beth in inappropriate ways before, and now that he had had a taste of her, he feared that his mind would torture him constantly with images of her writhing beneath him as he thrust into her. He heaved a sigh and tried to focus on anything other than Beth to gain self-control.

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Beth couldn't wipe the smile from her face as she climbed into the cold shower. She had meant it when she told Daryl that the night before had been the best night of her life. It most definitely had been. And it wasn't just the mind-blowing pleasure Daryl had been able to give her that made the night so special for her. It was also the intimacy, the closeness she had felt with him. She had only shared her body in such a way with one other person, and with Zach it had been nowhere near as intimate as it had been with Daryl. Beth had liked Zach, but her feelings for him hadn't even come close to her feelings for Daryl. Giving herself to Daryl had felt right and so natural. She was elated that he hadn't pushed her away again.

Feeling Daryl's walls come tumbling down as he gave in to their mutual desires was a big step for him, and Beth appreciated how difficult it had been for him. She could see in his eyes this morning that he was starting to feel guilty, and she had tried her hardest to make him dismiss those thoughts. She knew she couldn't change his destructive thinking patterns overnight, but she wasn't going to give up. There was no going back from where there relationship was now, and Beth wasn't about to let him rebuild the walls she had worked so hard to bring down.

As Beth washed, she smiled to herself as she felt the soreness between her legs. Daryl was definitely bigger than Zach had been, especially in the girth department. She wondered if that was why Daryl had been able to give her her first internal orgasm, or if it was because he just had more experience than Zach. It was probably a combination of both, but either way, Beth's idea of what good sex was had been entirely changed. She liked that she was sore, as it was a reminder of the amazing pleasure that had occurred the night before.

Beth finished her shower and quickly dressed. She tied her hair up in a ponytail and went out to find the cabin empty. She went outside and saw Daryl dragging a walker corpse over to where three other corpses were piled. She frowned and quickly scanned the area for further threats, thankfully seeing none. Daryl dumped the last corpse with the others and made his way through the gap in the spikes and up to where Beth stood on the porch.

"All four of 'em were skewered near the back of the cabin," he said, his eyes twinkling mischievously. "Not sure if it was the storm that riled 'em up or if it was your moanin' that attracted 'em."

Beth's cheeks flushed and her eyes widened. "Oh god, I didn't even think of that!"

"Yeah, you might wanna work on being quieter next time," Daryl teased her.

Beth grinned at his use of words. _Next time. _So he was already thinking about sleeping with her again. That was a good sign. She followed him back inside the cabin and sat down on one of the living room couches while he retrieved a jar of peaches and two forks. He sat down next to her on the couch and handed her a fork. They ate in comfortable silence for a few moments before Daryl cleared his throat and spoke.

"Since we're gonna be stayin' here for winter, we should start preparing more," he said.

"Preparing how?"

"I wanna start dryin' meat, in case game gets scarce when the weather turns, for one. Dried meat ain't tasty, but it's good to have on hand just in case. We should also start makin' more runs to nearby towns. Get as much supplies as we can. If we get any snow, we're stuck here till it melts. I ain't big on the idea of tryin' to make runs on foot."

Beth nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. Let's head to Hogansville tomorrow then. We should make a list today of everything we'd like to find."

"Yeah. Today I'll show you how to fix up a tripod out of sticks to dry meat. We'll get a couple of those made and start dryin' stuff as soon as I can catch it."

Beth nodded again and ate a few more peaches. Starting preparations for winter made it seem all the more real that they were staying at the cabin for a while. It made Beth feel safe and happy. Spending the winter holed up in the cabin with Daryl seemed like a fairy tale to Beth. She guiltily remembered their lost group and found herself wondering where they would be spending the winter. She hoped everyone had found some semblance of permanence and safety like she had Daryl had. She hoped they weren't going to have to spend this coming winter like the last one had been: running from place to place, constantly scavenging, always on the move. She still wanted to find them someday, but the more time that went by when it was just her and Daryl, the less she began to prioritize finding the group. Beth wondered if that made her selfish, but at the current moment, she didn't really care. She was happier than she had been in a very long time, and she was going to enjoy it.

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**Again, sorry this chapter was so short! The next chapter will be back to regular length, and it will contain more yummy Bethyl smut. ;) **

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	11. Chapter 11

**I have to admit that I was writing this chapter while I was supposed to be working today, but I was having too much fun writing it to focus on my work! Oops!**

**Now, here's some more smut to start this chapter off right . . . Enjoy! ;)**

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Beth was restless in her sleep as Daryl watched her. The early morning light was still dim, but the sky was beginning to lighten, and he could see her eyes fluttering beneath their lids as she dreamed. Her expression began to form into a slight frown, and Daryl wondered what she was dreaming about. A small moan escaped her lips, soon followed by another, and Daryl got his answer. He felt himself immediately growing hard at the thought of Beth having a sex dream and exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself down. As much as he wanted to pull down her panties and thrust himself inside her from behind, the idea of fucking her while she was sleeping seemed a little creepy.

Things had started heating up the night before as they had laid down for bed, but Daryl had stopped things when Beth had given a small hiss of pain as he slid two fingers inside her. She admitted to being sore from their first encounter, which Daryl couldn't help immediately feeling guilty for. Regardless of how much Beth had insisted she was fine and still wanted to be intimate with him, he couldn't bring himself to do it when he knew it would hurt her, even if the pain wouldn't last. He cursed himself for being so stupid. Beth had only had sex with Zach a few times, how could he have been so rough with her? He felt that he had been so selfish taking his pleasure from her without regard for her lack of experience. But Beth had sternly reminded him that he had given her the first internal orgasm she had ever experienced, and to her, that had been worth a little soreness the next day. Daryl had tried his best to let his guilt about the matter go, but he still hadn't been able to bring himself to have sex with her.

Now, however, Daryl was struggling with his resolve. He wondered if Beth was still feeling sore, or if she would object to him touching her right now. She gave another whimper in her sleep and Daryl almost groaned aloud. The sounds she was making were driving him crazy. Her brow was furrowed in frustration, and Daryl couldn't help himself. He tentatively ran a hand along the smooth skin of her inner thigh, and Beth gave a shuddering breath in her sleep. Daryl brushed his fingertips against the fabric of her panties, exhaling slowly when he felt her wetness seeping through them. His touch traveled up her abdomen and under her sleep flannel, and he slipped his hand under the waistband of her panties, running his fingertips down her sex and along her incredibly slick opening. He began rubbing gentle circles on her clit, watching her frustrated expression ease into one of relaxation and bliss. She moaned again in her sleep, and Daryl increased the pace and pressure of his fingers. He could feel that she was growing wetter, if that was even possible, and his erection was straining against the confines of his pants. Suddenly Beth's eyes fluttered open, and Daryl stilled his hand, but didn't remove it from her panties.

"D'you want me to stop?" he asked, his voice low and rough.

Beth shook her head furiously, and Daryl quickly slid her panties down her legs and tossed them to the floor. Beth spread her legs for him and forced his lips to hers as his touch found her center again, picking up where he had left off. She was already close; Daryl could feel her legs trembling. Her fingers clutched the front of his shirt, her grip growing tighter as she got closer to her peak. It wasn't long before she was shuddering beneath him as her orgasm took hold of her body.

Daryl let her ride out her orgasm before slowly sliding his middle finger inside her, his gaze focused on her face for any signs of discomfort. When she didn't wince, he added a second finger and slowly moved them in and out. He was amazed by how wet she was; he had never known a woman who had gotten as wet as Beth did.

Her hands had found their way under his shirt and were raising it up his chest, and he allowed her to pull the shirt over his head. Her attentions then went to unfastening his pants, and she tugged them down enough to free his almost painful erection. He closed his eyes as her small hand took hold of him and slowly pumped him up and down. He continued to move his fingers inside her, hooking them toward her stomach with each stroke.

"I need you," Beth murmured as she gave his cock a squeeze.

Daryl withdrew his fingers from her and looked down at her.

"You still sore?"

Beth shook her head with an eager smile, and Daryl grinned back at her. He ran his hands under her flannel and lifted it over her head, leaving her completely naked before him. He kicked his pants off all the way and positioned himself between her legs.

"Wait," she said suddenly. Daryl frowned in confusion as she reached to the bedside table and opened the drawer, pulling out a box of condoms. Daryl arched an eyebrow at her.

"Where'd those come from?"

"I got them in the pharmacy in Greenville," Beth explained.

"You mischievous little minx," Daryl smirked at her. "You were plannin' to seduce me all along!"

Beth giggled and blushed a bit. "You caught me," she grinned, tearing off one of the condoms and handing the small packet to him.

Daryl shook his head at her in amused disbelief. He tore open the packet with his teeth and rolled the condom down over his still-erect shaft. He kissed Beth deeply before breaking away and holding her gaze, searching for signs of any discomfort as he slowly pushed inside her. She was just as tight as she'd been the first time, but her expression showed no signs of pain. Daryl slowly began to move, maintaining eye contact with her with each thrust. He focused hard on maintaining self-control; he wanted to take his time with her, rather than fucking her hard and fast as he'd done the first time. He kept his movements slow and deliberate, and Beth's eyes fluttered closed as the pleasure gradually began to build. Daryl felt as though each thrust into her was deeper than the one before, and he wanted to feel all of her, wanted to fill her completely and make her his and only his.

He reached his arms around Beth's back and pulled her up so that he was sitting with her straddling his lap. The new angle allowed him to penetrate her even deeper still, and Beth cried out as he hit the spot that had made her climax so hard the first time. Daryl held her as close as he could as he continued to grind into her. The friction of their bodies rubbed against her clit, and Daryl could tell from the sounds Beth was making that she was getting close.

"Look at me," Daryl ordered. Her eyes fluttered open and he was struck by how much they had darkened in her state of arousal. In the light of the morning he could see how wide her pupils had become with desire, and the sight turned him on even more. He thrust into her harder, and soon her eyes were squeezing shut again as her tight walls clenched around his cock as her orgasm hit her. She cried out his name as she came, and Daryl quickened his pace a little. He buried his cock as deep as he could within her as he reached his own climax soon after.

They stayed where they were for several long moments, holding each other tightly and him still inside her as they attempted to catch their breath. Finally Daryl pulled back from the embrace and kissed her tenderly before disentangling himself from her limbs. He pulled off the condom and quickly tied it off. He stood from the bed and went to toss the used condom in the small trashcan in the corner. He suddenly heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him and turned to see Beth staring at him wide-eyed.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

"Your back . . ." Beth trailed off, looking unsure of how to react.

Daryl sighed. He hadn't even thought about Beth seeing his scars. It wasn't as though their existence was a secret, but this was the first time he had had his bare back to her in the light of day. Before the turn, Daryl usually tried to keep the scars hidden from the women he hooked up with, which usually wasn't difficult since he never stuck around afterward. It wasn't that he was afraid of people knowing about them, but more that he despised the reactions he got when people saw them. Daryl had never wanted anyone's pity, and that's all that he saw on the faces of those who had seen the scars. He could see pity and sadness in Beth's eyes now, but strangely, he didn't feel angry about it like he usually did. Beth was different than anyone Daryl had ever known, and she already knew more about his life before the turn than anyone. Opening up about his past was difficult, but Beth made it easier.

He made his way back to the bed and sat on the edge with his back to her so that she could get a better look at his ruined skin.

"Dad was fond of the belt," he muttered, looking down at his hands. He felt Beth's small, delicate fingers tentatively touching one of the ugly purple scars, and surprisingly he didn't flinch at her touch.

"How could someone do this?" Beth murmured, her tone sounding heartbroken.

Daryl shrugged and turned his head so that he could see her.

"It was worse when he was drunk, which was a lot," he said. "His life was shit and he took it out on Merle and me. When Merle left, then it was just me and him, and things got pretty bad for a while. Sometimes I didn't know if he'd stop or if he'd end up beating me to death. He quit once I got old enough to fight back. Think he realized I could've killed him if I wanted, and I mighta if he'd kept up with it. Instead I just moved out to live with Merle and left him to rot by himself."

Beth looked as though she were about to cry, and Daryl sighed.

"Don't want you feelin' sorry for me," he said. "Besides, it's in the past now. I survived."

"No one should have to go through that," Beth said, shaking her head.

Daryl shrugged again. "Yeah, but people do. It sucks but that's life for some of us. And I'm startin' to let it go. Thanks to you."

"Thanks to me?"

"You told me I gotta stay who I am, not who I was. I'm tryin' to do that and not to think about the shitty stuff that happened a long time ago," Daryl said, starting to feel a little embarrassed. "I don't think you realize how much burnin' down that moonshine shack helped me."

Beth beamed at him, and Daryl felt his heart swell at the sight. Beth scooted closer to him and pressed her bare chest against his scarred back in a tight embrace. It reminded him of the hug she had given him outside the moonshine shack all those weeks ago. He exhaled a deep breath and clutched her arms that circled him. Beth was helping him to overcome so much; she really was his light and his world. He couldn't believe how much her beautiful positivity had helped him to grow in recent weeks, and he took comfort in the way her small arms wrapped around him and held him close.

After a few minutes, Daryl cleared his throat and Beth released him from her embrace. He turned to face her and gave her a partial smile.

"We better get up and get dressed if we're still gonna head to Hogansville today," he said, and Beth nodded in agreement. She stood from the bed and made her way to the dresser to grab some clothes, and Daryl began dressing himself.

"Do you wanna try to go through any other towns today?" Beth asked. "If I remember the map correctly, I think Luthersville is on the way. It's about the same size as Greenville though, so we may not find much there."

"Might as well check it out if it's on the way," Daryl shrugged. "Let's make Hogansville our priority and if we have time we can check out Luthersville on the way back."

"Okay," Beth agreed. She had pulled on a pair of jeans and a simple fitted black T-shirt and was quickly tying her hair up in a ponytail. Daryl watched her as she moved about, and even though the clothes she wore weren't anything special and her hair was messy, she was the most gorgeous thing he had ever seen. He could still hardly believe that she wanted him. She caught him staring as she moved to leave the room and arched an eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"Nothin," Daryl said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You're beautiful, that's all."

Beth gave a little scoff, but she was smiling. Daryl followed her out of the room and began gathering the things they would need for the run. Once they were ready, they made their way outside and to the truck. Beth climbed in the passenger seat and pulled out the map to navigate, and Daryl hotwired the truck to life before climbing in next to her.

As they began to drive down the dirt road, Daryl couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face. The morning had already turned out so well, and he was confident that they were going to have a successful, good day. He was determined that nothing would bring him down today.

"Hogansville, here we come," he said as he turned onto the paved road, and Beth grinned at him in return.

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**Thanks for reading and please review! :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**I can't believe we're up to chapter 12 already! Thank you to everyone who continues to read and support this story!**

**There is more smut in this chapter. I've been feeling extra smutty lately. Enjoy!**

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Beth was flooded with memories as they drove into the city limits of Hogansville. The last time she had been here, she had been fourteen years old and she had been attending the Hogansville Hummingbird Festival. She remembered the rides, vendors, and live music that had filled the streets of downtown Hogansville that weekend. She also recalled that she and her friend had not-so-stealthily followed around a boy she had been crushing on, and how she had made up some lame excuse when he had turned around and accused them of stalking him all afternoon. As she stole a glance at the gorgeous man next to her, she was struck by how much things had changed in the past five years. Rather than giggling about a crush and imagining what it would be like to hold his hand, she was now sleeping with a grown man who gave her such intense orgasms she hadn't even thought were possible. She smirked a little at the thought.

Daryl pulled into the parking lot of a small strip mall that contained a Piggly Wiggly and a Family Dollar store. He killed the engine and waited a moment before exiting the truck. The parking lot, aside from some long-abandoned cars, seemed deserted, and he gave Beth a nod before exiting the truck with Beth following behind him. They made their way up to the Piggly Wiggly first. Daryl knocked loudly on the front window and waited. Soon after, several decaying bodies had pressed themselves against the glass. Daryl narrowed his eyes as he watched more of them slumping against the glass. There appeared to be at least ten of them, and Daryl sighed.

"Not worth it," he muttered, jerking his head toward the Family Dollar store. "Maybe there'll be less of 'em in here."

Beth followed behind him while Daryl repeated their usual tactic of knocking and waiting. This time, only three walkers made themselves known. Daryl shared a glance with Beth, who nodded. She flipped open her Swiss army knife and pulled open the door, and Daryl took down the first walker with his crossbow. Beth lunged forward at another biter and thrust her blade through its skull. As she tugged the blade free, she saw that Daryl had already put down the third walker and was retrieving his arrow from the first. He loaded his bow and went into the store first with his crossbow aimed and ready.

After whistling a few times and drawing no more walkers, he lowered the bow and looked around. The place had been looted already once or twice, but there was still a decent amount of merchandise on the shelves. He grabbed a few plastic bags from the check-out lane and handed some of them to Beth. The pair of them quickly ransacked the store, taking anything from cleaning products to toiletries to batteries to cold medicine. Beth also managed to find more laundry soap, which she was especially excited about. They exited the store and dumped their loot in the truck bed, and Beth glanced over to the Piggly Wiggly where the dead were still pawing at the glass trying to get out.

"We better go before they break the glass," she sighed, and Daryl nodded in agreement. They jumped in the truck and continued down the road they had come into town on, and they soon came to an intersection with a Ride Aid on the corner. Daryl pulled into the parking lot and they repeated their routine, this time surprised to find no dead waiting inside.

Beth took one side of the store and Daryl took the other, both of them taking necessities and luxury items alike. As Beth made her way toward the center of the store, she noticed Daryl in the family planning aisle shoving more boxes of condoms into a bag. She giggled and he looked up at her with a sheepish grin.

"What? Just wanna be prepared," he said defensively, and Beth laughed again.

"Fine by me. I'm flattered that you think we'll need all those."

Daryl's neck and ears flushed red, and Beth smirked in satisfaction from making him blush. Suddenly an idea struck her, and she made her way back to the actual pharmacy and hopped over the counter.

"What're you lookin' for back there?" Daryl called to her.

Beth didn't answer, and it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. She stared at the stack of Plan B pills before grabbing several of the boxes and shoving them into a bag. Daryl suddenly appeared next to her and frowned as he picked up one of the boxes.

"Emergency contraceptive?" he asked as he read the box.

"Just in case," Beth shrugged. "A friend of mine took it once when she and her boyfriend forgot to use a condom . . . it made her feel kinda shitty for a day or two, but it prevents pregnancy if you take it within 72 hours."

Daryl had an odd expression on his face.

"What?"

"We didn't use a condom the first time," he muttered. "So stupid. I didn't even think . . . we gotta be more careful. Gettin' pregnant is practically a death sentence nowadays. Can't believe I didn't—"

"Daryl, relax. You didn't even know I had the condoms the first time. And that's why I'm taking these. Just in case we get caught up in the moment or whatever. It's a backup plan. That's why they call it Plan B."

Daryl nodded. "Okay. But seriously, we gotta try to remember to use a condom every time."

"I agree. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

Daryl nodded, his expression still looking strained. Beth slid back over the counter with her bags in hand, and Daryl followed, grabbing the full bags he had set down on the other side of the counter. They made their way out of the store and tossed the bags in back. Daryl started the truck and turned down the street that led into downtown. There were a few walkers shambling about, but nothing they wouldn't be able to handle. He parked the truck near an old, quaint-looking hotel called the Grand Hotel.

"Let's be quick about this," he said as they climbed out of the truck. "It looks safe now, but that could change."

Beth nodded, and the pair of them began systematically exploring the shops of note on the main street. They grabbed some more first aid supplies from a mom-and-pop pharmacy, and Beth managed to convince Daryl to loot a dry cleaners store so that he had something that would fit him better whenever she washed his one set of clothing. Unfortunately, most of the shops in downtown Hogansville were antique stores, which offered nothing of use for them. They soon returned to the truck with a few things, but nothing like they were hoping for.

"Wanna head to Luthersville now?" Daryl asked as he started the truck and began to drive down the main street. "That sign says it's 15 miles away."

"Library!" Beth said suddenly. "We can't leave until we go to the library."

Daryl rolled his eyes at Beth's fervent need to visit the library, but she did have a point. Not only would they have more entertainment, despite Daryl's disdain for reading, but they would also be able to acquire resources to learn more about edible plants in their region and other survival techniques.

"Any idea where this library is?" Daryl asked.

Beth shrugged. "No idea. But it's probably somewhere around here. It's gotta be close to downtown, right?"

"Why are you askin' me? I ain't set foot in a library since I dropped outta school."

Beth gave him a look. "Just keep driving. We'll find it."

It didn't take long at all to locate the library. It was only a few blocks from downtown, as Beth had expected it would be. Daryl pulled into a parking spot out front and eyed the single-story building warily. The library was small with a quaint little gazebo porch out front, but he was wary of potential dangers within.

"You know how many biters could be hidin' in the bookshelves outta sight?"

"Same as the aisles in the stores we just looted," Beth sighed. "We'll just knock on the door like we usually do and see what comes out."

She opened the passenger door and hopped out before Daryl could argue further. He followed her up the steps and to the white double doors at the front of the library. He wished the doors had windows so they could see how many dead were inside, but that wasn't the case. Daryl sighed and banged heavily on the doors. After waiting several moments, he heard two distinct thuds as bodies pressed themselves against the doors. He listened carefully, but he couldn't detect more walkers than the two that were throwing themselves against the barrier between them. He gave Beth a nod and she quickly wrenched the door open. The two ghouls that had been pressed up against it came toppling out, and Beth and Daryl each dispatched one with their knives.

The lighting in the library was dim, as the windows that circled the building were narrow and high up on the walls. Daryl banged loudly on the doorframe, but no other ghouls came toward the sound. He carefully entered the shadowed library with his crossbow drawn, closing the door behind them when he was sure that no more dead were inside.

"How do we find what we're lookin' for?" he asked. "There's tons of books in this place."

"If the world had gone to shit twenty years ago, I bet the card catalog would still be a hard copy," Beth sighed. "But now, I bet it was in the computer system. We'll just have to search stuff out."

She made her way into the library and pointed to a section of shelving.

"That's nonfiction. You look there. Look for anything related to survival or wilderness."

"What're you gonna look for?"

"Entertainment," Beth grinned. Daryl rolled his eyes and walked over to the section she had pointed out to him, and Beth made her way to the fiction section. She started with the A's, grabbing several classics by Jane Austen that she already knew she liked. She then made her way to the R's and grabbed several of Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. Maggie had read them before the turn, but she had always insisted Beth was too young to read them. She secretly couldn't wait to find out what exactly had made Maggie believe she had been too immature to read the novels. She carried her large stack of books over to the door and set them down before going to find Daryl.

"Find anything?" she asked.

"Yeah, a couple of books about plants," Daryl nodded his head toward a small stack on the ground. "Lookin' for other stuff, but haven't found much yet."

Beth watched him reading the spines of the books before him, and she felt a throbbing between her legs as she realized how sexy he looked in the dim lighting with his face furrowed in concentration as he read. The shadows made him look sultry and mysterious. She bit her lip and leaned against the bookshelf behind her, and Daryl frowned at her.

"You ain't gonna help me look?"

An idea dawned on her suddenly, and she tried to hold back a mischievous smile. Daryl arched an eyebrow at her in confusion.

"What're you smirkin' at?"

"Ever had sex in a library before?" she asked.

Daryl chuckled and shook his head. "You serious?"

Beth sauntered closer to him and hooked her fingers through his belt loops, pulling his body against hers and grinding against him slightly.

"What do you think?"

Daryl's eyes began to darken, and he laced his fingers through her hair and took hold of her ponytail, giving it a firm jerk to angle her face toward his. Beth gasped and pressed herself harder against him. Daryl's pupils were dilated, and the predatory look he was giving her was making her wet.

"You're naughty," Daryl smirked down at her, his voice low.

"I know what I want," Beth replied breathlessly.

"You gonna be able to keep quiet if I give you what you want?" Daryl asked. "Your moans could get us into trouble out here."

Beth smirked at him. "We're in a library, Daryl. Being loud is against the rules."

Daryl laughed quietly, the sound vibrating in his chest that was pressed against hers.

"You better follow the rules then," he murmured, and brought his lips to hers in a hard kiss. Beth returned the kiss with equal passion, unable to contain a small moan when his tongue entered her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and Daryl removed his grasp from her hair and ran his hands down her body. He gave her ass a firm squeeze before sliding his hands beneath it and hoisting her up. Beth wrapped her legs around him and Daryl pushed her back against the bookshelf behind her, pinning her there with his hips. She could feel that he was already hard, which just made her want him more. She ground her lower body into his and cursed the layers of clothing that separated them. She removed one hand from around his neck and went to unfasten his pants. Daryl broke away from her lips and stilled her wandering hand.

"Hold that thought," he muttered, setting her back down on the floor.

"Huh?" Beth questioned in confusion as Daryl hurried away toward the door.

"Condom," he grunted as he opened the door and ran outside.

Beth giggled to herself, thankful he had be sensible enough to go grab a condom from the many they had stashed in the truck. While she waited for him to return, she quickly made her way over to one of the reading tables in the center of the library and tugged her jeans down her legs, kicking them to the side. She hopped up on the tabletop and laid back on her elbows. Daryl came running back inside moments later, closing and locking the door behind him. He spotted her lounging on the reading table and approached her slowly, looking at her as though he was stalking his prey.

Daryl ran his calloused hands along Beth's smooth, pale legs as he reached her. She bit her lip and watched him from under her lashes, feeling more aroused by the second. He pulled aside her panties and ran his fingers along her slit, and he slowly pushed a finger inside her with ease. Beth's breathing quickened, and Daryl added a second finger.

"You're so fuckin' wet," he growled.

His low voice made Beth even more impatient to have him, and she hurriedly made quick work of unfastening his pants. She seized his erection and gave him a firm squeeze.

"Fuck me, please," she whimpered.

Daryl wasted no time in pulling the condom he had retrieved out of his pocket. He tore open the packet and slid the condom over his shaft while Beth quickly discarded her panties. Daryl roughly tugged Beth's hips toward him on the table, bringing her center to the edge. She wrapped her legs around his waist and let out a moan as he slid inside her.

"Shh," Daryl hushed her, pressing a finger to her lips. "You said you'd be quiet."

Beth grinned and bit her lip. Being quiet was going to be harder than she thought. Her breath caught in her throat as Daryl withdrew and thrust into her again, and she pressed her hands over her mouth to muffle herself. He began a slow, but forceful, rhythm, each thrust hitting a sweet spot deep inside her. The way she was sprawled across the table gave him a full view of her lithe young body. He reached down to her center and began rubbing her clit with his thumb while he continued to thrust into her. She let out a whimper as she felt the added pleasure and grew even wetter, and Daryl began to move faster, his thrusts still hard and deep. The sight of her trying to keep herself quiet as he fucked and played with her was almost too much for him, and he suddenly withdrew from her and roughly tugged her off the table. He flipped her around and pushed her front against the tabletop. Beth arched her back to give him better access, and he quickly sheathed himself inside her again.

Daryl didn't know how it was possible for her to feel even tighter, but fucking her from behind definitely made it feel that way for him. He knew he wouldn't last much longer, and he wet his fingers with his saliva and reached an arm around her and found her clit again. Beth couldn't contain her moan of pleasure as Daryl's slick fingers furiously rubbed her clit. She arched her back further, allowing Daryl to penetrate her even deeper still. He pounded into her mercilessly, and Beth was soon on the brink of orgasm. Daryl could tell she was close, and he knew he would soon reach his own climax.

"Cum for me, girl," he demanded gruffly.

Hearing him speak that way was all Beth needed. After a few more thrusts, she reached her peak and came hard, her vision going spotty as she did. The feeling of her muscles clamping around his cock sent Daryl over the edge as well, and he let out a primal groan as he reached his climax.

Daryl leaned over her body on the table, his spent cock still inside her, for several moments as he caught his breath. Finally he pulled out of her, leaving Beth feeling empty. She turned around on the table and stumbled a bit, and Daryl caught her.

"That was so good that I'm dizzy," Beth giggled.

Daryl laughed and shook his head. He couldn't believe that this gorgeous, sexy young woman wanted him, and that she enjoyed being intimate with him so much. As she put her panties and jeans back on, Daryl disposed of the condom in a nearby trashcan and went back to the section he had been searching before Beth had distracted his attentions elsewhere. She appeared beside him and knelt down to continue looking, acting as though everything were perfectly normal and as though they hadn't just fucked shamelessly on a reading table. Daryl reached over and pulled her to him, causing her to topple into his chest with a surprised yelp. He pressed a deep kiss to her lips before releasing her from his grasp. She smiled at him, and Daryl found her smile contagious. They turned their attention back to the books in front of them, both of them grinning helplessly as they did.

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**Thanks for reading and please review! :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm sorry I haven't been able to update the past few days! Work is still insane and I've been very busy. Please forgive me for the delay. **

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Luthersville seemed even smaller than Greenville had been as they drove into the town's city limits. They hadn't expected to find much in the tiny town, but it was starting to look as though they would be lucky to find anything useful at all as Daryl entered the limited downtown area.

"How does a town this small need two hair salons?" Daryl muttered as he made a three-point turn to go back the way they'd come after seeing nothing useful on the downtown street.

Beth laughed a little and examined the storefronts downtown. Antique stores, a liquor store, a packaging supply store, hair salons . . . nothing useful. Daryl turned down Main Street and hummed in discovery as he pulled into the parking lot of a small hardware and auto parts store.

"Looking for anything particular?" Beth asked.

Daryl shrugged. "Was just gonna see if there's anything we can use. See if inspiration strikes."

He exited the truck and Beth followed, wincing just slightly as she stood. She was a little bit sore from her and Daryl's two sexual encounters that day, but she didn't mind. She smirked to herself as she recalled how hot the sex in the library had been. She remembered how sexy Daryl's low voice had sounded when he had told her to cum for him, and once again, she throbbed between her legs at the thought. She took care not to allow Daryl to notice that she was feeling sore, because despite the soreness, she knew she would want him again later, and she didn't want him to have any reservations about giving her what she wanted. He was turning her into some sort of nymphomaniac. Not that she minded. Beth had never experienced anything like it, and to her, the changes she was experiencing were nothing short of amazing.

Daryl cleared his throat, and Beth realized she'd been staring at him while lost in thought. She blushed and hurried to the door for their usual routine. Daryl knocked on the glass door loudly, and when nothing moved inside the store, Beth pulled the door open, allowing Daryl to enter first with his crossbow raised. They could hear the moans of a walker somewhere in the store, but since the sounds weren't coming any closer, they assumed the ghoul was stuck somewhere. Daryl whistled loudly, but the sound only further riled up the one biter they could hear. No other dead made themselves known.

Daryl crept toward the sound of the walker with Beth on his heels. They turned down an aisle and spotted the source of the sound. The walker was tangled in a heavy spool of barbed wire that had fallen from the shelves. Its rotting arms reached for Daryl and Beth, and due to its level of decomposition, they could tell that it had been stuck there for quite some time. Daryl quickly strode over to it and ended its second life with his hunting knife, leaving the store quiet. He stared down at the tangled up corpse in thought.

"What?" Beth asked, noticing his pensive expression.

"We should take this wire," he muttered. "See how the barbs got it stuck? We could use it to reinforce the cabin a little better. Maybe make a barbed wire fence to go behind the spikes as a second defense."

"Good idea," Beth agreed.

Daryl knelt down and began attempting to disentangle the walker's corpse from the wire, and Beth winced as the barbs tore chunks of decaying flesh as he pulled the wire free. Daryl heaved the heavy spool upright and off of the walker's body. He wasn't sure how much barbed wire they would need to make an adequate fence, but he fully intended on taking the entire spool. He attempted to lift it, but felt his muscles strain as he did so.

"Help me with this," he grunted to Beth, who was standing idly nearby. She grimaced at the bloody mess covering one side of the spool.

"You're not gonna clean that off?" she asked.

"No," he sighed impatiently. "Besides, maybe it's good to have that shit on there. Walker guts are like camouflage."

Beth shuddered, and Daryl rolled his eyes. "Here, you take the clean side. I'll hold the bloody side."

She nodded gratefully and went to where Daryl had been attempting to lift the spool. She got a good grip and hoisted the heavy spool in unison with Daryl. The two of them shuffled toward the door, where they had to put the spool down momentarily to open it, and then out to the truck where they stashed it in the far back of the truck bed. Beth quickly reorganized the rest of their loot in the truck so that the bags of goodies wouldn't get caught in the bloody barbed wire. She went back inside the store where Daryl was already pulling things from the shelves. He had a shovel in one hand and was throwing boxes of nails into a plastic bag looped around his wrist.

"They've got some lumber in the back," Daryl said. "We can board up most of the windows in the cabin so the light doesn't attract walkers. I know that don't sound too homey, but it'll be safer since we'll be stayin' there a while."

Beth nodded and couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face at the thought of staying at the cabin all winter. She wandered down one of the aisles and examined a selection of tools. Her eyes were immediately drawn to a small selection of hammers that had baby pink handles and she quickly grabbed one from the shelf.

"Tomboy Tools," she read from the label as her grin grew wider. The pink hammers were made for women, and according to the label, the company had donated a percentage of their profits to domestic violent prevention and breast cancer research before the world had gone to hell. The handle of the hammer fit perfectly in her small hand, and the weight felt well-proportioned as she gave it a few test swings.

"Whatcha got there?" Daryl's asked as he rounded the corner.

"A pink hammer!" Beth exclaimed a little too excitedly, and Daryl laughed at her.

"Looks like it was made for you," he said.

"That's because it was!" Beth grinned. "Well, not for me specifically, but for women. I love it!"

Daryl shook his head at her in amusement as she tore off the label and slid the handle through her belt loop, hooking the hammer in place. Her smile was contagious and he couldn't help grinning as they continued to peruse the aisles for anything of note. Beth found joy in the smallest things, and he loved that about her. The fact that a simple pink hammer could make her so excited was endearing.

It didn't take them long to finish looting the hardware store. They soon had supplies to board up the cabin and build the barbed wire fence, which made both of them feel safer for the months to come. Once the truck was loaded up with their supplies, Daryl began walking toward the convenience store and gas station next door to see if there was any food left inside. He heard no noises inside when he knocked loudly on the door, and the store proved to be empty when they went inside. Most of the food had already been taken, but they managed to find a few bags of chips and crackers, some packages of ramen noodles, and a few cans of soup. Daryl also managed to snag a few packs of cigarettes, which he was quite happy about.

"Let's check out the Valero station across the street and then head out," Daryl suggested as they put the remaining supplies in the truck.

"Do you wanna check out any other towns today?" Beth asked. "I think I saw on the map that a town called Moreland is about five miles north of here. It's even smaller than this though, so it might not even be worth it."

Daryl squinted up at the position of the sun as they walked across the street and shrugged.

"We're losing daylight," he said. "It's probably mid-afternoon now. I think we've done enough for today. Wanna head back soon in case we get car trouble and have to walk the rest of the way or somethin."

Beth nodded in agreement. She definitely didn't want to be walking around after dark if something were to happen to the truck. The truck was old, and there was no telling if or when it would have some kind of mechanical trouble. She didn't like thinking about it, but it was a definite possibility.

As they made their way into the gas station parking lot, Daryl slowed and nudged Beth, pointing to a body on the ground near the side of the building.

"Walker?" Beth wondered, and Daryl shrugged.

"Dunno. Just be alert."

Beth's hand touched the smooth head of her new pink hammer, and she tugged it out of her belt loop. As morbid at it was, she was actually eager to test it out on a walker.

"I'll go see," she said with a smile, getting a good grip on the hammer. She loved the way the handle seemed to fit perfectly in her hand. Daryl gave her a small smile and watched her approach the body with the hammer raised cautiously. He frowned when her raised arm lowered, however, and she quickly shoved the hammer back in her belt loop.

"Daryl!" she called to him urgently, and he hurried over. Beth was crouched over the body she had presumed to be a walker, but the body was breathing. It was a teenage girl who was laying on her side in an almost fetal position, and she was completely nude, her body covered in grime. She looked as though she had been badly beaten as well. One of her eyes was swollen and black, and he could see severe bruises through the dirt on her body, particularly around her ribs and back. Daryl's blood ran cold as he noticed the dried blood on her inner thighs, suggesting that she had been brutally raped.

"We have to help her," Beth said desperately, and Daryl nodded. Beth moved toward the girl's head and lifted it gingerly into her lap. "Go get a water bottle from my backpack in the truck," Beth ordered, and Daryl quickly took off back across the street toward the truck. The girl gave a weak moan and attempted to open her eyes, only one of them meeting Beth's gaze as the other was swollen shut.

"You're okay now," Beth reassured her. "We're here to help you."

Daryl appeared next to her with the bottle of water, and the girl immediately gave a start and tried to shy away from him.

"He won't hurt you," Beth said as she took the water from Daryl. "Can you drink some of this?"

The girl tried to sit up, but cried out in pain and shook her head. Beth handed the bottle to Daryl and propped her head up a little, and he knelt down and delicately poured a little in the girl's mouth. She coughed at first, but then drank as much of it as she could.

"Thank you," the girl murmured, her voice very hoarse and almost too quiet to hear.

"How long have you been here?" Beth asked.

"I don't know," the girl replied weakly. She seemed to be growing more coherent, and suddenly her breathing became heavier and her open eye darted around in fear. "Those men, are they gone?"

"What men?" Daryl asked slowly, glancing around the town and searching for any sign of the men she spoke of.

"Oh god, what if they come back for me? They said . . . they said they were leaving me to die, but what if they're coming back?"

The girl was growing more panicked with fear, and Beth tried her best to calm her.

"There's no men, it's just us. We're good people. We won't hurt you, I promise."

Daryl was still watching the deserted town around them. It still appeared to be void of people, but the girl's utter panic over these men made him very uneasy. It was obvious that they had been the ones to do this to her, and he didn't want to be anywhere near them. He didn't even want to think about what could happen to Beth if this girl's attackers found her. It made him sick to imagine it. He wondered if the men who had hurt this girl so much had been the ones who had kidnapped Beth. The girl was young, much younger than Beth, but she looked like she had once been pretty. Daryl was filled with icy fear and nausea at the very thought of people harming her so brutally.

"Daryl, we have to take her back to the cabin," Beth's voice brought him out of his head. "We can't just leave her here."

He nodded. "I'll get the truck and pull it over here. We'll have to put her in the back."

Beth watched him run back across the street. He ducked back into the hardware store and emerged a few moments later with some moving blankets that he'd seen when they had looted the place, and he quickly made a softer place for the girl in the bed of the truck before starting it and driving it back across the street.

"We're going to get you out of here," Beth said to the scared girl in her lap. "We have somewhere safe outside of town. I'm Beth, and that's Daryl. You don't need to be scared of us. We're here to help."

The girl nodded feebly, and Beth stroked her hair soothingly as Daryl backed the truck up close to them and made his way back over to them.

"What's your name?" Beth asked her.

"Cara."

"Okay, Cara. We're going to lift you and put you in the back of the truck. We're taking you somewhere safe."

Daryl bent down next to them, his expression looking distraught.

"I'll put her in the truck," he said. "Don't think there's any chance of her being able to walk."

Beth chewed on her lip as she watched Daryl delicately slip his hands beneath the girl's battered body. She gave a wail of pain as he lifted her easily, and Beth winced at the sound. Daryl gently set her on top of the blankets in the truck bed and made sure she was as comfortable as she could be before closing the tailgate. He walked around the truck bed and gave the spool of barbed wire a little shake to make sure it was secure and wouldn't go sliding around the truck bed before nodding at Beth and climbing in the driver's seat.

"We'll be back at our cabin in about fifteen or twenty minutes," Beth told Cara, who gave a single nod, looking as though she were about to pass out again. "Just hang in there."

Beth climbed in the truck next to Daryl and he carefully drove out of the parking lot, taking care not to hit bumps too hard so that Cara wouldn't be jostled around. He was chewing on his thumbnail anxiously, and Beth felt just as upset as he looked. They drove in tense silence for a few minutes and the tiny town faded away into forest on either side of the small highway.

"I don't like this, Beth," Daryl said after a few minutes. "Whoever did this . . . they could still be nearby. We don't know how long she was there. It could have been days or hours. I don't like knowin' that someone who is capable of this kinda violence could be somewhere near here."

"I know," Beth said quietly. "And she's so young . . . she doesn't look any older than fifteen or sixteen."

Daryl started feeling sick again as he thought about the blood caked on the girl's thighs. Someone had raped her, probably many times, beat her, and left her to die. And that whoever had done it was too close to home.

"Her injuries are pretty bad," Daryl said. "Definitely has broken ribs. She can't even sit up. We can try to help her, but she might not make it if she's got internal bleeding. I just want you to be prepared for that."

Beth nodded solemnly. She hoped and prayed that they would be able to save her. No one deserved to die from such horrible causes. She looked out the window and tried to keep herself calm. They would do whatever they could to help Cara, and hopefully it would be enough.

Daryl couldn't keep his eyes from frequently darting to Beth as they drove. He hated that the peace and safety of their home had been called into question, despite the fact that nowhere was really safe anymore. He felt now more than ever that he had to protect Beth. He would die before letting her end up like Cara, and if it came down to it, he would. He would give his life in an instant if it meant keeping Beth safe. The future was more uncertain than ever, but one thing was clear: Daryl was going to protect Beth no matter what.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**I know some of you are not a fan of the new plot development with Cara, but realistically, it can't be all sunshine and rainbows in the ZA (as much as I would like it to be!). Don't worry too much, though. I won't put you through too much grief. :)**

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Carrying Cara into the cabin proved to be somewhat difficult. Daryl had to lift her body high over the spikes to slide through the gap in them, which was difficult for him and painful for the girl. As soon as he carried her inside, he gently laid her on one of the couches in the living room while Beth hurried into the bedroom to get some clothes to cover her naked body. She returned with one of the oversized flannels that she liked to sleep in, thinking it would be the easiest thing for her to put on.

"Can you grab some first aid supplies?" she asked Daryl as she draped the flannel over Cara's body as a temporary cover. "Once we clean her up, I'll get her dressed."

Daryl nodded and went into the bathroom to fetch the bag of first aid supplies they had gotten from the pharmacies on their recent runs. They had bandages and gauze, antiseptics, and pain killers, but he wasn't sure any of their supplies would be able to help the girl. She didn't have many open wounds, and judging from the severity of her bruising, internal injuries were quite probable. He grabbed a washcloth and wet it under the faucet so they could clean some of the dirt off of her, but Daryl couldn't help feeling as though she was already doomed.

He returned to the living room with the supplies and handed them to Beth. It was clear that Cara was skittish around him, and after what she had been through, he couldn't blame her. It was better to let Beth help her. Her goodness and kind heart were palpable even to strangers, and if anyone could make the girl feel more at ease, it was Beth. Daryl leaned against the wall out of the girl's sight and let Beth take care of her.

Beth used the washcloth to clean some of the grime from the girl's face, and she disinfected and bandaged up an open wound above her eye. Beth took in the sight of her extensive bruising and she noticed with a chill that the purple rings around her wrists meant that she had been tightly bound with some sort of rope at some point. She couldn't bring herself to clean the blood from between Cara's thighs and sat back on her heels with tears in her eyes. She blinked them away and tried to stay strong for the poor battered girl in front of her.

"What happened to you?" she asked Cara softly. The girl didn't answer, and tears began to spill down her cheeks. Beth sighed and delicately took one of Cara's hands in her own. "I know it's hard to talk about, but we need to know who did this . . . we want to keep you safe, and while it's unlikely that anyone will find us here, we need to know more about what happened so we can make sure."

Cara nodded and tried to take a deep breath, wincing and coughing when her injuries prevented her from doing so. She met Beth's gaze.

"I was traveling with my dad and my uncle. We were trying to head south, toward the coast, 'cause we thought it'd be safer, you know? We stopped in Luthersville for a night and stayed in a house there. These guys found us and wanted our supplies. My uncle put up a fight, and they shot him right in front of me and my dad. There were five or six of them . . . too many to fight off, so my dad told them to take whatever they wanted. Apparently they wanted me, and they made my dad watch while they . . ."

Beth gave Cara's hand a squeeze as she started crying harder, which brought about another fit of coughing. She glanced at Daryl and noticed that he was tightly clenching his fists and jaw as he listened to Cara's story.

"After they were done with me, they killed my dad, too. They tied me up and said they were gonna take me back to their camp with them. They were taunting me . . . they said they had about twenty people at the camp and that I was gonna be a lot of fun for some of the men. They said they wouldn't hurt me as long as I let them have me whenever they wanted and didn't tell anyone. When they fell asleep that night I tried to run away, but I tripped and the sound woke them up. When they realized I was trying to escape, they beat me and left me to die. I don't know how long I was there before you found me. At least a day. I thought I was dead until you came."

Beth couldn't stop her own tears from spilling down her cheeks as Cara cried. She quickly wiped them away and tried to smile at the girl.

"They can't hurt you anymore. We will do everything we can to keep you safe. Just rest a bit and we'll make you something to eat."

Cara gave a weak nod and closed her one open eye, succumbing to her exhaustion. Beth rose from where she was crouched next to the couch and made her way toward Daryl. His tension was obvious, and he jerked his head toward the bedroom. Beth followed him and quietly closed the door behind them.

"Her story is familiar," Daryl hissed as soon as the door was closed.

"Familiar?"

"Remember that kid back at the farm? Randall?"

Beth frowned as she remembered the debates that had ensued over whether to let Randall go or to execute him, and her eyes widened as she remembered the reason for the debate over his execution. The group he had belonged to.

"You think Randall's group was the one who did this to Cara?"

"It adds up," Daryl said. "When I questioned Randall, he admitted that his group had done some shit like this. Talked about a man and his two daughters . . . makin' the dad watch and all that. The story's too similar. And the numbers, too. Cara said they told her they had about twenty people in their camp, and Randall said they had thirty. Maybe some of 'em died since then, or maybe they ain't even the same group, but the problem is the same. They're a threat, and they're nearby."

"What do you want to do?" Beth asked, fearing his response. "Do you want to leave the cabin?"

Daryl sighed and shook his head, filling Beth with relief. "No, I don't think runnin' from place to place would be any safer than stayin' put here. We're far enough out here that hopefully we won't run into them, but it still puts me on edge."

"Maybe we can find some way to make the cabin safer? From people, I mean?"

"If they've got twenty people in their group, nothin' will stop them if they want in this cabin, Beth. You know that."

Beth bit her lip and nodded, knowing he was right. She suddenly found herself wishing that it wasn't just her and Daryl in the cabin. She loved living with him alone and who he was when they were alone together, but against human threats, safety was in numbers. She stepped closer to Daryl and wrapped her arms around his middle, more for her own comfort than for Daryl's. He circled his arms around her as well and placed his chin on top of her head.

"Ain't gonna let anything happen to you," he said quietly. "I'd die before I let someone hurt you."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? It's true. You're too important to me, Beth."

Despite everything, Beth smiled at his comment. Daryl was always closed off when it came to talking about his feelings, and even a small admission like that meant a lot coming from him. She pulled away from his embrace and looked up at him with hope shining in her eyes.

"We'll protect each other," she said resolutely. "Because you're too important to me to lose, too."

Daryl gave her a half smile, her words warming him and affecting him more than he would admit. Even though there could be danger lurking nearby, he liked knowing that he and Beth still had each other and that she was willing to fight for him just as he was willing to fight for her.

"We should go see if we can get Cara to eat something," Daryl said after a moment. "Maybe heat up a can of soup or somethin."

Beth nodded. "Do you want to try to hunt something before the sun sets?"

Daryl immediately shook his head. "Nah. I'm not lettin' you out of my sight, girl."

The corners of Beth's mouth threatened to tug upward in a smile, but she knew he was being completely serious.

"So I'm gonna have to come with you every time you go out on a hunt?" she asked.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded. "Seriously, Beth. I'm not leavin' you alone. I'm not riskin' anything happening to you. Besides, you can keep up with your tracking lessons. Soon I'll have you doing all the tracking and I'll just be there to help you kill whatever we track down."

Beth couldn't help smiling at that. She loved to learn new skills, and she was gradually getting better at tracking with Daryl's help.

"What about Cara?" she asked suddenly. "She can't walk, are you gonna leave her alone in the cabin while we go out and hunt? Doesn't seem fair or safe for her."

Daryl sighed impatiently and ran a hand over his face. "We'll figure something out. For now, let's just stick to canned stuff we've got in the cabin."

"Okay," Beth sighed. She opened the bedroom door and made her way into the kitchen to get the wood stove going.

"I'll go get the soup from the truck," Daryl said quietly and Beth nodded in reply. He went outside and came back in a few moments later with most of their bags of loot from that day. He set them on the kitchen counter and went back outside to retrieve the rest of their goodies. Beth dug through the bags until she found the one that contained the cans of soup they had found in the gas station. She chose a can of chicken noodle soup and quickly heated it over the stove, pouring it into three bowls so that they could all get something to eat.

She made her way over to where Cara was asleep on the couch and gently shook her awake.

"Hey, made you some soup," she said. "Let's see if we can get you to sit up a little."

Beth delicately helped Cara until she was leaning against the arm of the couch so that she could eat. She gently helped her into the flannel shirt and buttoned it up, hiding her battered body from view. She situated herself on her knees next to Cara and began feeding her the soup slowly.

"Thank you," Cara said quietly. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes I do," Beth said firmly. "What kind of person would I be if I didn't?"

"You'd be like most other people, I think," Cara said. "So many bad people are out there now. I think you might be one of the only good ones left."

The girl's statement made Beth's heart ache, but she couldn't blame her for feeling that way after what she had been through. Still, she shook her head and forced a smile.

"You'd be surprised," she said. "Daryl's a good person, too. And the group we used to be with, they're good people. Not everyone out there is bad."

"You were with a group?"

Beth nodded. "Yeah. We were living in a prison for a while. I know, it doesn't sound like a good place to be, but we made it our home. The fences kept the walkers out, and we were growing crops and building a life there."

"What happened? How come you're not there anymore?"

"Some other people tried to take it from us. It fell and we had to run. I got out with Daryl and it's just been us ever since."

"The people who tried to take it . . . they're bad people, right? It's like I said, there are so many bad people out there."

Beth sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I guess I can't deny that there are bad people out there. But there are good people, too. You have to remember that. I know you might not want to believe it after what happened to you, and I understand that. But I don't think you should dismiss your hope in humanity yet. We can't lose faith in the goodness of people."

Cara studied her with her one open eye for a moment, looking lost. "How are you able to be so positive?"

Beth shrugged. "It's just the way I am, and I believe in people." She suddenly an epiphany. "Did you ever read _The Diary of a Young Girl _by Anne Frank?"

Cara frowned a little. "Sure, in middle school I think, but I don't really remember much about it. Why?"

"She has a really great quote in that book. She says, 'in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.' I think I believe the same thing. This world changes you, and we have to do things sometimes that we wouldn't have done before, but it doesn't mean most people are bad. I think this world just forces some people to get out of touch with the goodness inside themselves. I try to remember that everyone has the potential to be a good person, and I think there are still people out there who try to be."

"You're definitely one of them," Cara mumbled, and Beth smiled.

"I know. You're in good hands."

* * *

Daryl ground out the cigarette he had been smoking on the porch with the toe of his boot and took a deep breath. He had overheard Beth and Cara's conversation, and it only made his admiration of Beth grow. He couldn't believe that she could see what people were capable of doing to a girl like Cara and still believe there was good in them.

He felt that he was already losing his faith in humanity that Beth had been able to restore all those weeks ago. It had started with her kidnapping, but Cara's fate only made it worse. He couldn't tell Beth that, however. He'd never forget her wide-eyed expression when she figured out that she had been the one to change his mind about the possibility of good people, and he knew it would kill her to know that he wasn't so easy to believe in good people anymore. Cara was right; there were so many bad people in this world, and Beth was one of the only good ones left. It just increased his need to protect her and to keep her safe.

_This world can't afford to lose a bright soul like you, Beth,_ he thought. _The world would be too dark without you in it._

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)  
**


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry for the wait! I had a difficult time writing this chapter and I'm not sure why. I'm not happy with the way it turned out. But I don't want to keep you waiting for an update any longer, so I decided to stop trying to revise it and to just publish it. The next chapter will be better!**

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The rest of the afternoon was hard on Beth. After she managed to get Cara to eat some soup, she and Daryl had also eaten, and he had gone outside to start working on the barbed wire fence. Beth got the impression that being around Cara made him feel uneasy, as if she was a constant reminder of what could happen to Beth if Cara's assailants were to find them. Beth couldn't blame Daryl for not wanting to be around the girl, but it meant that Beth had to stay by her side instead. She tried her hardest to keep Cara in good spirits, but it was easier said than done. She had tried reading some Jane Austen aloud, hoping the nineteenth century romance would distract Cara from the horrible pain she was in, but her frequent coughing and resulting pain made it hard to get through even a single chapter. Eventually the girl fell asleep, and Beth stood from the second couch and went outside to stretch her legs while Cara rested.

She paused for a moment as she came out onto the porch and watched Daryl at work. He was digging holes to put fence posts in, which he would then wrap the barbed wire around. Beth admired the way his muscles flexed as he worked and the way the sweat shone on his skin. Even though danger was lurking around the corner and it was possible that they could lose everything they had, Beth couldn't help feeling thankful for Daryl. If anyone could keep her safe, it was him, but she was thankful for more than just the feeling of safety and security he gave her. Beth had always been a pretty positive person, but Daryl made her love life even more.

After getting her fill of watching Daryl laboring in the late afternoon sun, Beth descended the porch steps and made her way over to him. He looked up as she approached and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

"How's she doing?" he asked. Beth shrugged.

"I tried reading to her, but she kept coughing and we barely made it through a chapter. She's in a lot of pain, but she finally fell asleep."

Daryl frowned. "That's not good."

"What's not good? That she's sleeping?"

"No, that she's coughing," Daryl sighed. "She's got a couple of broken ribs. It's possible that one of her ribs punctured her lung. That would explain the coughing."

Beth's eyes widened. "How is that treated? Is there anything we can do?"

Daryl shook his head. "If it's minor, it could heal on its own. But if it ain't . . . I dunno, Beth. We just gotta keep an eye on her."

Beth nodded and bit her lip. Daryl could see that she was distraught, but there really was nothing they could do.

"I told you before we got back here that she might not make it," Daryl said quietly. "If she does have a collapsed lung, she could go at any time. I just need you to be ready for that, okay?"

Beth nodded again and blinked back tears. She had to be strong.

"Can I help you with the fence?" she asked. "I need to put my mind on something else."

"Sure," Daryl replied. "I've already dug a few holes for the fence posts, so you could hold the posts in place while I shovel the dirt back in around them."

"Sounds good."

Beth grabbed one of the pieces of lumber that Daryl had propped against the side of the cabin and dropped it into the first hole. She held it steady while Daryl filled the hole in around the post with dirt.

"So glad I grabbed this shovel today," he said offhandedly.

"Yeah," Beth agreed. "I'm also glad we got those books. I can't wait to start reading the ones by Anne Rice."

"What are they about?"

"Vampires, mostly. But there's one about witches, too. Maggie used to read them, but she always told me I was too young to read them. I can't wait to find out what she was trying to hide from me."

Daryl gave her a half smile and shook his head. Her comment made him realize how young she was; she reminded him of a teenager who couldn't wait to watch dirty movies when her parents went out of town. He tried not to think on it. Beth had proven time and time again that she wasn't a kid, but it didn't mean she wasn't young. Daryl had been slowly letting go of his sense of right and wrong when it came to her age, but he still didn't like to think about how young Beth was. The world they lived in was rough enough to make anyone grow up fast, and Beth was clearly a woman, but sometimes, in moments like this one, her youth made itself known and reminded Daryl that just a few short years ago, Beth had been a naïve, suicidal teenager. The woman standing next to him was a completely different person than the teenage Beth had been, but she was still young, and Daryl felt his protectiveness of her increase.

"It will be good to delve into those books on plants, too," Beth was still talking, and Daryl pulled himself out of his thoughts and tried to listen.

"Yeah," he agreed, packing down the dirt around the fence post and moving to the next hole. Beth grabbed another piece of lumber and placed it in the hole as Daryl began to fill it in around the post.

"What month do you suppose it is?" Beth asked, seeming as though she were talking just for the sake of distracting herself.

"Uh . . . October? Maybe November?" Daryl guessed. The nights were definitely cold now, and the leaves had changed colors a few weeks prior on the trees. Winter would be upon them very soon, which made Daryl curse the timing of the arrival of danger.

"Maybe in a few weeks we should pick a day to be our Thanksgiving," Beth suggested. "We could prepare a special meal and make a thing of it."

Daryl scoffed. "What do we need to do that for? We should be savin' our food, not makin' special meals."

"We should do it because we have a lot to be thankful for," Beth said. "This cabin, all the supplies we've found, the truck . . . each other." She smiled softly at him. "I'm most thankful for you. For what we have together. I think we should celebrate it."

Daryl felt his chest get a little tight as he looked at her, and he gave her a single nod.

"Okay," he agreed. He turned back to filling in the dirt around the fence post they were currently working on. "Ain't never had a Thanksgivin' before," he admitted after a few moments.

"Well then I'll make sure you have one, and a good one worth remembering at that," Beth said with a warm smile. Daryl felt his chest tighten again and he couldn't help returning her smile.

They worked silently side by side for a while, both of them already thinking about their Thanksgiving. His family had never celebrated the holiday growing up, and until the world went to shit, Thanksgiving had only been a reminder of what he had never had. He had to admit that he was looking forward to finally being able to celebrate the holiday. Daryl hoped he would be able to get a deer for the meal. They could eat as much of the deer as they pleased and then they could dry the rest of the meat.

Beth was excited, too. Thanksgiving was always a pleasant time around her house growing up, when all the kids were home from college and their family got to be together. She found herself missing her father and Maggie more than ever, but she was glad she had Daryl. Despite all the difficulties and loss they had experienced, he was still able to make her happy. He was definitely worth celebrating.

After a while, they had filled in all the fence post holes that Daryl had dug before Beth came outside. She sighed and wished they had grabbed a second shovel, but Daryl seemed content to finish the digging on his own.

"I'm gonna go check on Cara and then put some supplies away," Beth said. "I'll be back out in a little while."

Daryl nodded and Beth made her way back inside. Cara's breathing appeared to be a little shallow, but the girl was sleeping soundly and Beth didn't want to wake her. She went to the kitchen where Daryl had put the bags of their loot from that day on the counter. Resisting the urge to hum so she didn't wake Cara, Beth quietly moved about the cabin putting away their supplies. She grinned to herself when she came to the hefty supply of condoms Daryl had taken from one of the pharmacies. He had taken so many boxes that they wouldn't all fit in the bedside table drawer, and Beth had to stash a few of them under the bed.

Deciding to do a little laundry, Beth gathered up her dirty clothes and the laundry soap and went into the bathroom to wash them in the tub. The bathroom was growing dark, as the sun was now setting outside, and she quickly scrubbed her clothing before all the light vanished and left the bathroom in total darkness. She knew Daryl would have to come inside soon once he no longer had light to work by; they would have to finish the fence tomorrow.

After hanging her clothes to dry, Beth went back out in the living room and went to the fireplace to light a fire. She fumbled around in the dim lighting for the Bic lighter they had been using for the fireplace, but before she could find it, a rattling moan came from behind her. A chill ran through her and she whirled around, seeing Cara reaching for her on the couch.

"Cara?" she asked hesitantly.

The moan grew louder, and Cara lurched herself off the couch and toward Beth. Beth's heart sank as she realized what was happening, and she scrambled away from Cara as the girl clawed her way across the floor toward Beth. Through the dim light of sundown, she could see that the girl's one open eye no longer held the spark of life. Beth's eyes flooded with tears and she reached for her knife that was in her pocket, fumbling with it in her distress. She struggled to open the Swiss army knife, and Cara's dead hands suddenly latched on to Beth's ankle and began tugging her toward her gnashing teeth.

"Daryl!" Beth shrieked, still unable to open the knife due to her shaking hands.

She tried to kick the dead girl away from her, and she heard the sound of Daryl's heavy footsteps as he ran inside. Cara was abruptly pulled off of her and Beth squeezed her eyes shut as Daryl unsheathed his own knife. She heard him put Cara down and the girl's snarling stopped, leaving only the sound of Beth's tears that were now spilling down her cheeks. Daryl rushed to Beth's side and began looking her over.

"You okay? Did she get you?"

Beth shook her head, letting her tears fall freely. Daryl had warned her, not even a few hours ago, that this could happen, but she was still in shock that it had happened so suddenly. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged herself, and she felt Daryl wrap his arms around her and pull her into his chest in a tight embrace.

"She was fine not even twenty minutes ago," Beth choked out. "She was sleeping. I put our stuff away and washed some clothes, and when I came out here to light a fire she was suddenly gone and came after me."

"There was nothin' we could've done, Beth," Daryl said quietly. "We did everything we could."

Beth nodded and wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

"Look at it this way," Daryl continued. "At least she didn't die alone. We got her out of there and she got to feel your kindness before she went. She at least felt safe and taken care of."

Fresh tears spilled down Beth's cheeks, but she nodded. "Yeah. I just wish we could have done more."

Daryl hummed in agreement, the sound vibrating in his chest. Beth took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to allow herself to be calmed by his scent and his embrace. He held her tightly against him and made no moves to let her go. They clung to each other as the sun dipped below the horizon and darkness fell around them, each taking comfort in each other.

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**Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be happier (and it will probably be sexier, too; I'm having smut withdrawals). Please review! :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm pleased with the way this chapter turned out. I hope you all enjoy it, too. :)**

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Beth's eyes fluttered open, and she noticed that the bed was empty next to her. She could hear a rhythmic sound coming from outside the cabin. She stood from the bed and went over to the bedroom window, pulling back the curtains to reveal the source of the sound.

Daryl was outside digging a grave for Cara beneath a dogwood tree behind the cabin. The sun had barely even begun to peek over the horizon, and judging from the depth of the hole he had dug, he had been at his task for some time. Beth's eyes drifted to the sheet-covered form next to the grave and she bit her lip, trying to fight off the wave of sadness that came over her at the sight. She could feel that her eyes were still swollen from crying the night before, and thankfully no fresh tears sprang to her eyes now. She had cried all the tears she had left the night before in Daryl's arms.

She hadn't even known Cara longer than a few hours, but her inability to save the girl was what was really hurting Beth. She hated knowing what Cara had gone through without being able to show her that there was still goodness left in the world. Even with everything she and Daryl had done, Beth could sense that Cara had lost her faith in humanity. Beth wished she could have changed that.

She sighed and quickly got dressed before wandering out into the chilly morning air. The sun was just beginning to shine over the horizon, and a fog still lingered, yet to be warmed away by the sun. She made her way over to where Daryl had just finished digging. He looked up as she approached.

"Was just gonna come wake you," he said, his voice rough from lack of use.

Beth looked down at Cara's body that was hidden from view by an old plaid sheet that Daryl had taken from the linen closet.

"I'll help you put her in," she said.

Daryl nodded and bent down toward the body, careful not to let the sheet slip and uncover her as he slipped his arms under Cara's shoulders. Beth lifted beneath Cara's feet and the two of them carefully lowered her into the grave. Daryl grabbed the shovel again and began replacing the dirt around her body while Beth watched in a daze. After a few moments, she blinked herself out of her reverie and walked into the trees, grabbing two large sticks from the ground. Beth wandered back toward the house and to the toolbox on the screened in porch. She found a nail and removed her pink hammer from her belt loop to nail the two sticks into a cross. When she was done, she slipped the hammer back into her belt loop and made her way back to Cara's grave. She shoved the cross into the ground at the head of the grave and placed her hand on Daryl's arm to cease his shoveling.

"Let me finish it," she said.

"You sure?"

Beth nodded, and Daryl surrendered the shovel to her. He had already filled in the grave about halfway, and Cara's body was no longer visible, but Beth wanted to finish the job. Daryl stood behind her and watched as she filled in the grave with dirt, each shovel-full feeling heavier than the last. When she finished, she set down the shovel and went to stand by Daryl, who immediately took her hand in his.

"You wanna say somethin?" he asked.

Beth shrugged. "Dunno what to say," she admitted. "We didn't know anything about her. I dunno if she was religious, so prayer doesn't really seem right. I don't know what prayer I would say anyway."

Daryl nodded solemnly and gave Beth's hand a comforting squeeze.

"This is gonna sound silly," Beth said, "But there's a quote from Buffy that just came to mind. She says, 'The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.' I think that applies now more than ever. And at least Cara doesn't have to live in this world anymore."

Daryl frowned at her, remembering when Beth had lost her own will to live shortly after they had met for the first time. Beth seemed to sense what he was thinking and shook her head.

"I'm not saying people should want to die. I've been there, done that, and I'm over it. I'm just saying that it's good that she's in a better place. Even if there is no heaven and there's nothing after death, nothing is still better than what she went through. She doesn't have to fight anymore or be scared anymore. She's either basking in eternal glory or she doesn't exist anymore, and either way, I think that's okay."

Daryl's grip grew tighter on Beth's hand and he swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat. He wasn't a religious person, and he didn't believe in the concept of Heaven or Hell, but the thought of nothingness after death had always unnerved him. However now, Beth's statement made sense. The world they lived in was fucked up, and while he certainly didn't want to die anytime soon, thinking about the nothingness that could follow death actually wasn't so scary. _Life_ was the scary thing nowadays, not _death_. But it just meant that he wanted to live as much as he could while he still could, and he wanted to live that life with the woman next to him.

Beth began to walk away, but she kept her fingers entwined with his, tugging him along with her back toward the cabin. He followed willingly and allowed her to lead him through their fence and inside, only stopping when she reached the bedroom and dropped his hand. She turned to face him and moved her body close to his, her deep blue eyes staring into his own and her lips mere inches from his.

"Make me feel alive, Daryl," she said quietly.

He understood what she needed perfectly because he felt the same need. He needed to be with her intimately, not for sexual desire, but to feel the thrill that life gave them. Facing the harsh reality that death was always around the corner wasn't new to either of them, but in that moment, they both felt the need to remember and feel what made life worth living.

Daryl brought his hands to the sides of Beth's face, cupping it between them and rubbing the pads of his thumbs over her smooth cheeks. He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her with everything he had, and Beth felt her knees weaken from the sheer passion of his kiss. She sighed into the kiss and returned it with equal intensity. Her small hands tangled themselves in Daryl's long hair as she molded her body against his. His tongue entered her mouth and mingled with hers, but it wasn't their usual battle for dominance. Instead it was almost tender, yet eager and passionate at the same time.

Beth began to back up toward the bed behind her without breaking the kiss. She disentangled her hands from Daryl's hair and ran them under his shirt, loving the way his warm skin felt under her touch. Their lips parted only momentarily as she pulled the shirt over his head. She shivered as Daryl's calloused fingertips ghosted across her stomach beneath her own shirt, and soon it joined Daryl's shirt on the floor. She wore no bra, and she reveled in the feeling of their bare chests pressing against one another as she fell onto the bed, taking Daryl with her.

She scooted back to the pillows at the head of the bed and immediately began working on the fastenings of Daryl's pants, his hands simultaneously unbuttoning her own pants and tugging them down her legs along with her panties. Beth pulled Daryl's pants down as far as she could, and he aided her in kicking them off, leaving them both naked. Daryl paused and drank in the sight of Beth's exposed body, which she made no effort to hide. Her nipples were hard, whether from desire or from the chill of the cabin, he wasn't sure, and her skin looked pale, smooth, and perfect everywhere his eyes searched. He was unable to find a single imperfection about her, and he was overcome with appreciation for her.

"You're so beautiful," he said quietly.

Beth blushed a little and smiled. She loved hearing Daryl tell her that she was beautiful. If she thought about it, no one had said those words to her before him, which just made them sound even more wonderful. She brought her smiling lips back to his and kissed him passionately again. She could feel his erection against her inner thigh and she arched her hips up, grinding herself against him. Daryl's lips left hers and began trailing kisses down her neck and collarbone. His facial hair scratched her skin in a delicious way, and Beth released a moan when he opened his lips and sucked on her neck, marking her. She arched her hips against him again and he ran one of his hands down her body and between her legs. He began rubbing slow, soft circles around her clit, and Beth moaned again.

"I need you now," she murmured breathlessly.

"You ain't ready yet," Daryl replied softly against her neck. She was growing wetter as he touched her, but he knew she wasn't wet enough to take him just yet.

"Don't care," Beth panted. "Need you."

Daryl brought his mouth away from her neck and spat into his palm. He wiped his saliva on the tip of his erection and positioned himself between her legs. He slowly slipped inside her, moving inch by inch until he was completely sheathed to the hilt. Beth wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her ankles behind him. She ground her hips up against his, prompting him to move. He slowly pulled out of her about halfway before sliding back in, amazed by how wet she had become so quickly. Beth's hands found their way back to his hair and she abruptly tugged him down to her lips, moaning into his mouth as he thrust into her again. Daryl's tongue tangled with hers as he set a steady pace. Each thrust took him deep inside her and he was astounded by how amazing her tight walls felt around him as he moved.

Suddenly he stopped, realizing why she felt better than usual. Beth pulled away from his lips and frowned up at him, squirming a little in an attempt to get him to keep moving.

"We need a condom," he muttered, but Beth shook her head and tightened her legs around his waist, her ankles still locked together and holding him in place.

"Leave it," she commanded breathlessly. "Wanna feel you, and just you right now."

The logical side of him insisted that this was a bad idea, but Daryl brushed the thoughts away and nodded. He looked down into her deep blue eyes and thrust into her again, hard this time, causing her to cry out as he hit her sensitive spot deep inside her. His eyes didn't leave hers as he continued to thrust into her slow, deep, and hard. The connection Daryl felt to Beth became stronger, almost overwhelming, and he suddenly realized that this wasn't just fucking. This was making love. He had never used those words before to define his sexual encounters, but he felt that it was the only accurate way to describe what was happening between them at that moment.

Beth's eyes began to flutter closed as she neared her climax, and he sped up a little in hopes of getting her there faster, as he wasn't going to last much longer himself. She gasped and moaned as he pounded into her, and soon she came undone beneath him, her walls constricting around him in pulsating waves and sending him over the edge.

"Beth," he groaned out, and he abruptly pulled out of her warmth and finished himself on her lower belly without a second to spare. He collapsed next to her on the bed and allowed himself a moment to catch his breath before going to the dresser and grabbing one of the old white undershirts from the cabin's original occupant and making his way back to Beth, where he cleaned up his mess from her stomach with the shirt. He fell back on the bed beside her and turned on his side to face her.

"Shouldn't have done that without a condom," he said.

"I know," Beth sighed. "It's just not as intimate with a condom, and I needed more, you know?"

"I know."

Daryl reached his arm over and pulled Beth into his body, and she turned on her side and curled into him with her back to his chest. She loved how perfectly they fit together and how right it felt to be close to him like this. She had spooned this way with both Zach and Jimmy, but she didn't seem to fit against them nearly as well as she did against Daryl. It was as though he were the missing piece to her puzzle, as corny as that seemed.

Daryl began running his fingertips over Beth's skin, giving her pleasant goosebumps. She sighed contentedly and let her eyes flutter closed as she enjoyed his delicate touches. She realized that she would probably have to take one of the Plan B packages she had swiped from the pharmacy. Even if it would make her feel under the weather for a day or two, it wasn't worth the risk of conceiving a child. The world was already a dangerous place, and Beth couldn't imagine having to deal with pregnancy and the birth and care of a child with the added danger of Cara's assailants being somewhere nearby. Her body and mind were already under enough stress as it was.

"We should finish the barbed wire fence today," Daryl said after a few moments.

"Yeah," Beth agreed. "Can we just lay here for a few more minutes?"

Daryl chuckled a little. "Sure. We can lay here for as long as you want."

"In that case, let's lay here forever," she said with a smile, turning around to face him. "I just want to pretend that everything hasn't gone to hell. I want to pretend that the dead aren't walking and trying to eat us, that crazy groups of sadistic people aren't out to hurt us, and that the only thing we have to worry about today is when to finally get ourselves out of bed."

Daryl gave Beth a sad smile and nodded in agreement. "Me too, girl. Me too."

Beth pressed her lips to Daryl's and got lost in the kiss. The world would never be "normal" as it once was, and no matter how much pretending they did, it couldn't change the reality of the harsh life they had been forced into. But both found consolation in the fact that despite all the factors working against them, they still had each other.

Beth pulled away from Daryl's lips and stared into his icy blue eyes, and she felt her heart expand as if she had a balloon in her chest as she looked at him. With a start, she realized that her feelings for him ran deep, deeper than she had ever thought they would. What had started as a feeling of safety had grown to sexual attraction, but now, it was so much more than that. She knew that she would die without him if she lost him, and not just because he kept her safe, but because she would lose the will to carry on without him. He was her rock, and as she continued to look into his eyes, Beth slowly came to terms with a fact that scared her more than anything they had faced thus far.

Beth was falling in love with Daryl. And she was falling fast.

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**I think I'll aim for a few chapters of fluff and smut before bringing in more conflict to the story. I can't handle the depressing shit right now.**

**Thanks for reading and please review! :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Wow, this story has reached over 100 reviews! That milestone means so much to me. Until a few months ago, I hadn't written any fiction in almost five years, so it feels amazing to know you guys are enjoying what I'm writing. I'm a full-time editor and I make my living fixing errors and giving other people feedback, and it feels great to get some feedback of my own. You guys are amazing and you make me want to keep writing! :)**

**Here's chapter seventeen! Enjoy!**

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Beth drew her sweater closer to her body in an attempt to retain some warmth as she followed Daryl through the woods. This day was turning out to be colder than any they had endured so far, meaning that winter was definitely almost upon them. She wished she had thought to grab a jacket or a coat of some kind on their last supply run, and she considered mentioning it now, but she knew Daryl would shoot down the idea. With the location of Cara's assailants still unknown, the thought of going into a nearby town made him uneasy, and he had declared that they would hold off on supply runs until absolutely necessary. With the meat he would be able to procure from hunting, they would have enough food and supplies on hand for the next few weeks at least. He hoped that Cara's attackers would have moved on from the area before he and Beth would need to make another run.

Daryl had stuck to his word that he would not leave Beth alone, and now, here she was, trying to step as quietly as she could as he attempted to hunt down a meal for them. Daryl had given up letting Beth lead the tracking effort that day. It had been three days since she had taken the Plan B pills, but she seemed as though she were still feeling the side effects. They were nothing serious, but the fatigue the pills had brought about made it difficult for her to concentrate, and she kept losing her ability to focus on the tracks in front of her. She wanted nothing more than to go back to the cabin and curl up on the couch by the fire to sleep, but they needed meat, and Daryl wasn't about to let her go back to the cabin alone.

Daryl glanced back at Beth, noticing the way she had wrapped her arms around herself, and he knew she was cold. She looked exhausted as well; the circles under her eyes that normally weren't there were a dead giveaway. He knew nothing about the emergency contraceptive pills Beth had taken, and despite Beth's assurances that the side effects she was experiencing were normal, it still worried him. He sighed and focused on the rabbit tracks he was following. He had only managed to catch one squirrel so far, and he hoped it wouldn't be much longer until he came upon the rabbit who had made the tracks he was pursuing.

They continued quietly traversing through the woods for a while, neither of them speaking to avoid scaring off any potential game. Beth was getting much better at making her steps quiet, but Daryl was still aware of her presence behind him. A flash of movement to his left caught his eye, and in a heartbeat, Daryl had raised the crossbow and released a bolt into a squirrel that had been scurrying on a tree next to them. He went to retrieve his prize and attached it to his belt with the first squirrel. When he glanced back at Beth, he noticed that she was leaning against a tree with a hand pressed over her lower abdomen, her brow furrowed in what looked like pain.

"You okay? What's goin' on?" he immediately asked her.

Beth grimaced and stood up straight. "Just give me a minute. I need to check something."

She ignored Daryl's confused frown and turned and headed into the trees so that she was just out of sight. The cramps she was feeling were familiar, and she wanted to verify that they were what she thought. She quickly unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down just enough to peek into her underwear. Sure enough, it seemed as though her period had finally decided to make an appearance. Beth sighed, thankful she had been wearing pantyliners as a precaution since taking the Plan B pills, but she knew she would have to get something more substantial before her flow increased. It had been a few months since she had even had a period, and Beth wasn't sure what to expect.

She made her way back to Daryl, who looked confused and mildly irritated.

"Can we head back?" Beth asked.

"Why? You okay?"

Beth nodded. "My period finally decided to make an appearance," she sighed.

"Oh," Daryl said, sounding relieved that it wasn't something more serious. He glanced down at the tracks in the ground, wishing he had some way of knowing how close the rabbit was.

"Do you need to head back right now?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant. Beth huffed a little.

"I guess not right away, but soon would be good. There's stuff I need back at the cabin."

"Like what?"

"Like tampons, Daryl."

He reddened, suddenly feeling very stupid. Of course that's why she needed to head back. It wasn't just because she was in pain. He nodded in mild embarrassment.

"C'mon, let's go."

He reluctantly abandoned the rabbit tracks and began heading back the way they'd come. At least he had managed to get two squirrels. He had wanted to get more, maybe dry some of the meat they couldn't eat, but this would have to do. He glanced at Beth, who looked relieved to be heading home. She grimaced as her cramps grew in severity, and Daryl wished he could do something for her. Suddenly he realized that as far as he knew, Beth hadn't had a period since they had been traveling together. He frowned and glanced back at her.

"When's the last time this happened?" he asked, motioning toward her stomach. "Don't remember you goin' through this before."

"It's been a while," Beth sighed. "A few months. I haven't had a period since before the prison fell. Stress can do crazy things to your body. I guess those Plan B pills did something with my hormones and jumpstarted it again."

Daryl nodded and kept walking. He wasn't familiar with the workings of the female anatomy, but he was sure that skipping periods wasn't normal. He tried not to let himself worry about Beth's health and instead reminded himself that the arrival of her period meant one positive thing: she was not pregnant. After Lori's fate, the thought of Beth getting pregnant terrified him. And even if childbirth hadn't suddenly become so dangerous, the idea of traveling with an infant child in a walker-infested world was equally as terrifying to him. He suddenly wondered if perhaps it would be a good idea to search for birth control pills as an added precaution on their next supply run, whenever that would be. Daryl didn't want to take any chances.

Beth looked very relieved when the cabin finally emerged through the trees. They slipped past the spikes in the ground and went around to where they had made an opening in the barbed wire fence behind their first line of defense. Daryl had finished the barbed wire fence the day before, and he was satisfied with the way it had turned out. It was unlikely that any wandering ghouls would be able to approach the cabin without getting impaled on the spikes or snagged in the wire, and even if they did manage to get past both fences, the perimeter alarm still served as a final warning system. Daryl just wished that the walkers were the only threat to worry about, because the two fences would do nothing to keep out living threats.

As they entered the cabin, Beth immediately made her way to the bathroom, and Daryl went to start a fire in the fireplace to warm the chill from the cabin. He held his hands in front of the new flames and let the warmth seep into his cold fingers. Beth emerged from the bathroom and fell onto one of the living room couches with a groan. Daryl turned to face her and noticed her face was contorted with pain.

"You wanna take some ibuprofen or somethin?" he suggested. "We do have some."

Beth shook her head. "We should save it. It's uncomfortable, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'm just going to try to sleep for a while."

"Okay," Daryl agreed, wishing he could do something to help her feel better. "I'm gonna go gut the squirrels. I'll be outside on the porch if you need me."

Beth nodded with a yawn and curled into herself for a nap. She wished her cramps would go away, but she was thankful that they were back in the cabin where she could sleep and stay warmer by the fire. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out the pain in her lower abdomen for long enough to fall asleep.

Daryl went back outside with the squirrels in hand and sat down on the porch steps to gut and clean his kills. The sky was growing cloudy and the wind was starting to pick up a little. He didn't think it was cold enough for snow, but it was clear that some kind of precipitation was on the way. He was extremely thankful that he and Beth had the cabin to shelter them from the elements. The previous winter had been a mild one, but spending the winter scavenging and running from place to place had taken its toll on everyone. He was glad that he and Beth had a roof over their heads and a fire to keep them warm through whatever weather winter decided to throw at them.

Once the squirrels were skinned, gutted, and cleaned, Daryl made his way back inside the cabin. Beth was asleep on the couch, but her hands covered her abdomen and a slight frown creased her forehead. Daryl sighed, once again wishing there was something he could do to help. He went to the kitchen sink and washed the dried squirrel blood from his hands. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he quickly gathered all the kitchen pots that were in the cabinets and filled them with water. He lit a fire in the wood stove and put the pots over the stove to heat the water. It took a while, but once the water was boiling, he brought each full pot to the bathtub and emptied the boiling water into the tub. He continued boiling water in the pots until the tub was full, which took almost an hour. He tested the water in the tub and smiled. It was still piping hot, but it had cooled down enough to be the perfect temperature for a bath. He made his way into the living room and knelt down next to the couch, shaking Beth awake gently.

"What is it?" she asked groggily as she opened her eyes.

"Got somethin' that'll make you feel better."

"Unless it's a chocolate bar you've been holding out on me, I think you're lying," Beth mumbled sleepily, and Daryl snorted.

"C'mon," he urged. "Come see."

Beth groaned and sat up. She followed Daryl into the bathroom with a confused expression on her face. She frowned when he pointed to the full bathtub.

"Daryl, I appreciate the thought, but a cold bath isn't going to numb my uterus out of hurting," she said, and Daryl rolled his eyes.

"I ain't that stupid, girl," he scoffed at her. "It ain't cold. See for yourself."

Beth knelt by the tub and put her hand into the hot water, and she moaned aloud at the feeling.

"Oh my god, how did you manage this?" she asked.

"Boiled a bunch of water to fill the tub for you," Daryl shrugged. "Took a while, but I wanted to help you feel better."

Beth took two steps back to where Daryl was standing and threw her arms around him.

"You are amazing and I don't deserve you," she sighed happily. Daryl felt his heart speed up a little at her words, and he had to fight the voice inside his head that countered that _he _was the one who didn't deserve _her. _

"You deserve more than I can give you," he mumbled. "But this is the best I can do right now."

Beth looked up at him with a wide smile on her face. "It's perfect. Thank you."

Daryl smiled back at her and nodded toward the tub. "Go on, then. Get to relaxin' before it gets cold."

Beth grinned and immediately pulled her shirt over her head, followed by her bra. Daryl leaned against the doorframe and shamelessly watched her undress as she wiggled out of her jeans. She hesitated, her hands stilling as they reached her underwear. She glanced back at Daryl, who frowned a little.

"Since when are you too modest to undress in front of me?" he asked.

Beth blushed and looked away from him. "I'm wearing a tampon and I don't want you to see . . ."

Daryl scoffed. "You serious? After all we've been through together, you're worried 'bout me seeing a little string between your legs? You're crazy, girl."

Beth laughed a little, realizing how silly her embarrassment was. Daryl was right. She shrugged and decided to let go of her shyness, removing her underwear and stepping delicately into the hot water. Goosebumps instantly covered her skin as she lowered herself into the steaming water, letting out a long moan as she did so. The heat enveloped her body and she felt her muscles immediately relaxing. She looked to Daryl, who was still standing in the doorway looking very pleased with himself.

"You should come join me," she said with a grin. "You went through all the trouble to heat up this water and I think you should get to enjoy it with me."

Daryl shrugged. "Nah. I did it for you. Want you to relax."

"I am relaxing, and I can relax just as well with you in here with me. Please join me?" Beth urged.

Daryl hesitated for a moment before shrugging and deciding to give in. He quickly pulled off his own clothes, and Beth scooted forward in the tub to make room for him. He stepped into the tub and resisted the urge to moan like Beth had upon feeling the hot water. He slid down into the tub to sit behind her, and Beth leaned her back against his chest, sighing contentedly. Daryl wrapped his arms around her and enjoyed the feeling of relaxation and intimacy.

"I'm feeling better already," Beth sighed. The hot water was already beginning to ease her cramps away.

Daryl removed his arms from around Beth's body and gently pressed her forward. He began rubbing her shoulders, his strong hands starting to work the knots out of her muscles. Beth groaned in appreciation as her eyes fluttered closed.

"You're the best boyfriend ever," she murmured. Her eyes snapped open and as she realized what she had said, but Daryl didn't look bothered.

"Sorry, didn't mean to say that . . . unless it's okay that I did?" Beth said uncertainly, and Daryl laughed softly as he continued to rub her back. They had never put a label on their evolving relationship, and she wasn't sure if Daryl would want to be called a "boyfriend."

"Ain't never been nobody's boyfriend before," he admitted. "But if that's what you want me to be, I'll try to be a good one."

Beth turned a little in his arms to see his face better. "We don't have to label it like that if you don't want to. But I want you to know that I'm yours. And I hope you want to be mine."

Daryl's chest constricted a little, and he tightened his hold on Beth, loving the sound of her being his.

"I'm all yours, girl," he said quietly. "I'm yours for as long as you'll have me."

Beth smiled and pressed her lips to his, feeling herself fall more in love with him. He was hers and she was his. They belonged to each other, and the feeling made her chest swell with happiness.

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**Just FYI, I don't know if my depictions of Georgia winter will be accurate. My grandmother lives in Marietta (a northwest suburb of Atlanta), but I have never visited during the winter. I live in Iowa, and our winters are pretty brutal (our high temperature today is 3 degrees!), and I've never experienced a southern winter. I apologize if my depictions of winter there are inaccurate!**


	18. Chapter 18

**I wrote the end of this chapter on my lunch break. I wonder what my colleagues would think if they realized what I was actually working on in my cube . . . you'll see why when you get to it. Haha! ;) Enjoy! **

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Beth sorted through their stash of first aid supplies and picked out a few packages of gauze, some rubbing alcohol, and a bottle of painkillers. She tossed them into the plastic bag she was holding and went out into the living room where Daryl was loading a decent supply of dried rabbit meat into another bag.

"Where is the sewing kit you used to stitch me up when we first got here?" Beth asked. "I think it would be good to put in here, just in case."

"End table in the living room," Daryl replied, and Beth made her way over to the end table and tossed the small sewing kit into the bag.

It had now been almost two weeks since Cara's death, and although they had experienced no issues with people finding the cabin, they decided that it would be a good idea to put a few bags of emergency supplies in the truck in case they had to make a quick getaway, whether from threats living or dead. It had been Beth's idea, and Daryl wholeheartedly supported the plan. He was surprised that neither of them had thought of it sooner.

Daryl had also showed Beth how to hot wire the truck. Since they didn't have the keys for the vehicle, she needed to know how to start it in case they had to run and Daryl wasn't able to go with her. At first, Beth refused to acknowledge that she would ever leave the cabin without him, but Daryl insisted that she had to learn just in case. He had no intentions of splitting up with her either, but in their world, things rarely went the way they were supposed to. It put Daryl's mind more at ease to know that Beth could escape in the truck without him if it really came down to it.

"What'd you put in the bag?" Daryl asked her as he came over with a bag full of food and bottled water in one hand and one of their cooking pots in the other. He grabbed his crossbow from by the door and shouldered it, not wanting to leave the house without a weapon, no matter how close by they were going.

"First aid supplies, the map, a flashlight with extra batteries, and condoms."

Daryl arched his eyebrows at the mention of the final item.

"What?" Beth said innocently. "You said pack the essentials!"

He gave her an amused smirk and slipped past her to take his stash of supplies out to the truck. He still found it hard to believe that Beth was really his. They had only been sleeping together for two weeks (technically one due to Beth's period the week before), but already he was addicted to her, and he couldn't believe that she felt the same need. He kept thinking that he would wake up and it would all be a dream. It seemed impossible that such a beautiful, pure woman like Beth wanted him to put his dirty hands on her all the time.

It wasn't just about the sex, however. Daryl knew he had feelings for Beth, but he wasn't sure how deep they ran. Having feelings for a woman was an entirely new concept to him. It felt foreign, and he wasn't sure what it all meant. He knew that his chest felt tight whenever she flashed one of her genuine, warm smiles at him. He knew that his heart sped up when she said anything even remotely romantic, and that the corners of his mouth always seemed to twitch upward whenever he heard her sing. Most importantly, she made him feel like a good man, which was a big step for him. And he knew that he should probably tell her all of these things that she made him feel, but the thought made him clam up and forget everything he wanted to say. He wasn't sure he could even put his feelings into words. He was in completely uncharted territory, blindly trying to find his way.

Daryl heard Beth following behind him to take her own bag of supplies out to the truck. They wove their way through both of their fences and walked over to the truck. Daryl opened the passenger side door and placed his bag of food and water on the floorboards, along with the cooking pot. Beth put her own bag down next to his and stretched, looking around the quiet woods for signs of walkers. Suddenly Daryl felt her hand grasp his arm, and he immediately looked in the direction of her line of sight.

A doe stood about two hundred feet away, her head down grazing on the forest floor in front of her. Daryl glanced quickly at Beth, who was smiling. He slowly pulled his crossbow from its place on his back and raised the loaded bow. He took careful aim and took in a deep breath, letting the arrow fly as he exhaled. The arrow sailed through the air and struck the doe in the neck, immediately downing his prey. Daryl shared a wide smile with Beth before running toward his kill. He pulled out his hunting knife and quickly finished the job and ended the deer's misery. Beth appeared at his side, still smiling.

"You still want to have a Thanksgiving?" Daryl grinned up at her.

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Their meal was a simple one, but it seemed like it would be the best meal either of them had had in a long time. Daryl had butchered up some large deer steaks from the doe, and he planned to smoke and dry the rest of the meat the next day. He took care of preparing the protein, frying the steaks in a large skillet over the fire with ample salt and pepper, and Beth handled the rest of the meal: sautéed dandelion leaves and candied hickory nuts for dessert. She was especially excited to have something sweet to snack on after the meal, because it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without dessert. Beth had stumbled upon the hickory nuts when she was picking dandelion leaves, and Daryl had identified several large hickory trees near the cabin that had littered the ground with nuts. All she had to candy them with was sugar and water, and roasting them with the wood stove had been difficult, but she was still looking forward to the treats anyway.

Preparing the meal made Beth feel like they were just a normal couple living a normal life, and for a while, she had been able to forget all the dangers that constantly threatened them. Daryl had hovered over her while she candied the hickory nuts, and the way she had needed to constantly bat his hands away from sampling the goodies reminded her of how her family's Thanksgivings had been, except it had always been her father and brother who had been trying to snatch tastes of things all day. Beth had sung while she worked, and more than once she had caught Daryl smiling softly at her as she did.

"Meat's almost done," Daryl called to her from beside the fire. She gave the dandelion leaves a final stir and pulled them from the heat.

"Dandelion is done, too. Bring the deer over here and we'll serve it up."

Daryl brought the hot skillet into the kitchen and set it down on the stove. The smell of candied nuts and now the cooked deer steaks filled the cabin, and Beth couldn't stop inhaling the wonderful homey scent. She grabbed two plates from the cupboard and served them up with the meat and greens. She wished they had a starch of some kind, but she was still grateful for what they did have.

The pair of them took their full plates over to the coffee table, as the cabin didn't have a real kitchen table, and sat down next to each other. Daryl looked at Beth with an uncertain expression.

"Ain't we supposed to say grace or some shit like that?" he asked.

Beth laughed a little. "At my house we always did, but I know you're not really into that. How about we just say what we're thankful for?"

Daryl scoffed. "That's lame."

"Yeah, well, it's what you do on Thanksgiving," Beth argued with a playful nudge to his side. "You give thanks."

"You go first."

"Okay. I'm thankful for this amazing cabin, for the defenses we were able to put in place, for all the supplies we've found, for your amazing hunting skills," she listed off, nudging him playfully again, "and most of all, I'm thankful for you and this relationship we have. I'm thankful that I got out of the prison with you. Even though we haven't found the rest of our group, and we might not ever find them, I'm still thankful that we're together. I haven't been this happy in . . . well, probably not since the turn, and that's a pretty big deal."

She smiled brightly at him, and Daryl felt that familiar tightness in his chest that this time threatened to be almost overwhelming. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat.

"Well, now I regret makin' you go first 'cause I dunno how I'm gonna follow that," he muttered, and Beth giggled. "I'm thankful for all that, too. And for you. I'm thankful that I got you back and didn't lose you. I ain't ever gonna lose you again, I'm gonna make sure of it."

Beth leaned into him and he pressed his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. They broke apart soon after and Beth smiled at him.

"Well, happy Thanksgiving," she said. "I hope it makes up for all the Thanksgivings you missed growing up."

"It already has," Daryl smiled at her.

* * *

The two of them ate until they could eat no more, and even after they had reached their limits, they still couldn't keep their hands off of the candied hickory nuts until Beth finally put them in a container and stashed them away out of their reach. Beth had changed into one of her sleep flannels shortly after their meal, and both of them had been stretched out on the same couch for almost two hours now, Daryl in the center of the couch with his feet propped on the coffee table and Beth laying lengthwise with her legs across his lap. She was reading aloud from _Interview with the Vampire_, and Daryl was tracing patterns on the smooth skin of her legs.

As she read, Daryl hardly focused on the words, but instead on the sweet way her voice sounded, and how the light from the fire made her blonde hair seem to almost glow. Eventually his touch started to wander farther up her legs, his fingertips caressing her skin closer and closer to her center, but never touching her there. He knew Beth was aware of what he was doing; he caught the tiny smirks on her face each time his fingers ghosted near her center.

"'I went down into the street after Lestat and walked for blocks,'" she continued reading, biting her lip for just a moment when Daryl's fingers inched closer between her legs. "'The streets were muddy then, the actual blocks islands above the gutters, and the entire city so dark compared to the cities of today. The lights were—'"

She gasped suddenly as Daryl's touch finally reached her sensitive center. He rubbed her through the fabric of her underwear, and he could already feel the moisture gathering between her legs from the anticipation of his touch. He ran his other hand up beneath the flannel, over her flat stomach, and to her small, firm breasts. Daryl's calloused fingertips gently circled one of her hardened nipples, and Beth let out a small, quiet moan. He slipped his other hand beneath the dampening fabric of her panties, and the book tumbled from Beth's hands to the floor as he slowly slid one finger inside her.

The light from the fire softly illuminated her face as he slowly slipped his middle finger in and out of her wetness, and Daryl found himself almost enthralled with the way her lips parted and her eyes found his, looking up at him through her lashes as her eyelids threatened to flutter closed. He slid his moistened finger up to her clit, and Beth sucked in a breath as he began to gently circle it. He felt a sudden need to pleasure her in ways he had never done before, and he quickly tugged her panties down her legs and discarded them on the floor.

Daryl leaned over Beth on the couch, and her lips immediately found his in a passionate kiss. He went to work on unbuttoning her flannel as she quickly tugged his shirt over his head, and before long, he felt the wonderful feeling of her bare skin against his chest. She was naked, and by the light of the fire, she looked even more perfect than she ever had before. Her hands went to the button on his pants, but he stilled her movements. She frowned in confusion.

"Not yet," he said, his voice rough. "Wanna make this about you first."

She smiled a little as he began kissing down her chest, stopping only briefly to roll his tongue over each of her small, hardened nipples, before continuing lower down her abdomen. He dipped his tongue into the hollows of each hip bone, earning small moans from Beth, and soon he was positioned where he wanted to be between her legs with her thighs on either side of his head. He planted small, open-mouthed kisses along her inner thighs, slowly moving closer toward her center. He felt Beth begin to tense up, and her tension only increased the closer his mouth got to its destination. He glanced up at her and noticed that she was squeezing her eyes shut.

"Beth," he said softly, and she opened her eyes to meet his gaze. "Relax."

"Sorry," she murmured. "I'm trying. I've never . . . no one's ever . . . it's just nerve-racking."

Daryl's eyes widened a little in realization, and he found an inexplicable sense of pride that he would be the first man to ever go down on her. But he understood her anxiety, and he needed her to relax or she would never be able to enjoy the pleasure he so desperately wanted to give her.

"Do you trust me?" he asked, and Beth frowned.

"Of course I do," she answered quickly. "You know I do."

"Then just let go," he urged. "Just relax. Ain't got nothin' to be scared of. You're beautiful."

Beth nodded and exhaled slowly. He felt the tension ease in her thighs as she forced herself to relax. He smiled softly at her, and she returned the gesture, her cheeks flushing a little in anticipation. Daryl lowered his head and began kissing her inner thighs again, working her up to the actual act. Beth's eyes fluttered closed, and though he felt her tense again as he neared her sex, the tension wasn't nearly as severe as it had been before. Finally Daryl placed a delicate, open-mouthed kiss between her legs, causing Beth's breath to hitch in her throat at the feeling of the contact. She didn't push him away, however, and Daryl slowly ran the tip of his tongue over her clit, touching her as softly as he could. Beth gasped; he had barely touched her, yet the pleasure she had felt from one swipe of his tongue had given her more pleasure than she thought possible. She forced herself to relax again, biting down on her lip as his tongue began to delicately swirl around her swollen clit.

When he was sure Beth was comfortable with what he was doing, Daryl moved a hand to the top of her mound and used his thumb to pull up her hood, revealing more of her clit to him. He circled the little nub with the tip of his tongue, gradually applying more pressure, and Beth gave a breathy moan as he did so. He began flicking his tongue across her clit faster, and Beth's breathing became labored and heavy. Her fingers suddenly fisted themselves in his hair, and Daryl had to fight the urge to grin as he realized how much she was enjoying what he was doing. He flattened his tongue and pressed it against her, moving his head from side to side, and Beth had to control herself from bucking her hips against him. The pleasure was almost too intense, and she could feel that she was already close to orgasm.

Daryl could sense she was close, too. Her thighs were twitching and her grip had tightened on his hair. He paused for a brief moment and slid two fingers inside her, and Beth let loose a loud moan when he returned his tongue to her clit. He alternated between light, fast licks and more pressure with the flat of his tongue while he pumped his fingers in and out of her. She was impossibly wet, and the scent of her combined with the feeling of her juices coating his chin was making his erection almost painful. He hooked his fingers inside her toward her stomach and began rubbing against her sensitive spot inside, and the combination of his fingers and tongue sent Beth exploding over the edge. She let loose a moan so loud that it could have been a scream, her orgasm tearing through her and making her see stars. Daryl pressed his tongue firmly against her clit as she rode out her orgasm.

Beth felt as though she had tunnel vision and her hearing even seemed muffled as she came back to her senses. She had never in her life experienced an orgasm that intense. She looked down at Daryl, who was grinning triumphantly from between her legs, and she felt that she couldn't even form words to describe how she felt. Her whole body felt like jelly, and all she could do was release a few breathy moans as she attempted to gain control of herself. When she finally felt that she could move again, she feverishly grabbed Daryl by the shoulders and pulled him on top of her. She kissed him fiercely and was strangely turned on by the taste of herself on his mouth. Her hands fumbled with the button on his pants and she frantically tugged them down, needing to feel him filling her completely.

Daryl produced a condom from somewhere, and Beth hardly had time to wonder where it had come from before he rolled it on and quickly sheathed himself inside her with a single thrust, causing her to cry out in surprise. He didn't wait for her to adjust, instead immediately pounding into her hard and fast. Beth clawed at his back and tried her best to move her hips to keep up with him. Both of them released almost animalistic moans as he continued to thrust into her harder than he ever had before. It was almost painful when he bottomed out inside her, but Beth didn't care. An orgasm was quickly building inside her and she didn't want him to stop.

It didn't take long before Beth felt herself reach her peak. Her walls clamped tightly around his cock and she dug her nails into his back as she saw stars for the second time that night, calling out his name as she came. Daryl gave several loud, primal groans before thrusting himself as deep inside her as he could go, his motions stilling and his eyes squeezing shut as he reached his own release. He stayed still for several moments until he felt he was able to think straight again. When he moved to pull out of her, Beth hooked her legs around him and held him in place, not wanting to feel the emptiness from him leaving her just yet.

"Not yet," she panted. "Just stay like this with me, just for a few more moments."

He nodded, feeling unable to speak, and lowered himself onto his elbows so he could look at her. She was grinning widely, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling, and Daryl felt the familiar tightening in his chest again at the sight.

"You just rocked my world, Daryl Dixon," Beth breathed out with a giggle, and he chuckled, unable to stop his own grin from spreading across his face.

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**And now somehow I have to get back to work after writing this. Focusing is going to be difficult! haha!**

**Thanks for reading and please review! :)**


	19. Chapter 19

**This chapter is somewhat of a filler chapter (but at least there is some smut!). I haven't been able to update the past few days and I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long. Enjoy! :)**

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Beth woke the next morning to the sound of running water. She sighed and stretched and realized suddenly that the sound meant that Daryl was taking a shower. Beth didn't mind that Daryl tended to shower only every few days, despite their access to clean running water, but she looked forward to running her fingers through his clean, soft hair when he was done. The man looked good in grime, but she loved how soft his hair was when it was clean.

She rolled over in bed and felt her cheeks flushing a bit as she recalled the night before. The pleasure Daryl had been able to give her with her tongue was like nothing she had ever felt before. The thought of oral sex used to intimidate her, and she had never felt comfortable enough around Zach to let him go down on her. The thought of having a man's face _down there _had formerly made her feel embarrassed just thinking about it. But now, she was incredibly glad that she had been able to let go of her insecurities with Daryl so that she could experience it. Once again, Daryl Dixon had completely changed her idea of what good sex was. It felt like he knew more about her body than she did, and she was very eager to learn more about what she liked in bed.

Beth knew she wanted to return the favor for Daryl, but she was just as inexperienced with giving oral sex as she was receiving it. She knew the general idea of what to do, but she had never tried it. The thought of putting her lips around his large, hard cock actually made her throb between her legs, and she bit her lip in sudden determination. An impish grin suddenly spread across her face as an idea came to her. She jumped out of bed and carefully snuck into the bathroom where Daryl was still showering, the shower curtain hiding her from view. Beth spotted his clothes in a pile on the floor and she quickly snatched them up, trying to stifle a giggle as she hurried out of the bathroom with the clothes in her arms.

She tossed his clothing unceremoniously on the ground and pulled her flannel over her head, leaving her in just a pair of gray lace panties. She settled herself back on the bed and waited. The water shut off a moment later, and she heard Daryl move the shower curtain aside and mumble something, likely profanities. He appeared in the doorway a few moments later with a towel around his waist, looking irritated.

"You take my clothes?" he asked, not failing to notice her lack of clothing as his eyes traveled down her body.

"Mmhmm," Beth nodded. "Didn't want you getting dressed yet."

"Oh yeah?" he smirked, his irritation vanishing as he moved toward the bed. "Why's that?"

Beth rose to her knees and crawled to the edge of the bed. She untucked the towel from his body and let it fall to the floor. He was already half hard, and Beth grinned up at him wickedly at the sight of his growing erection.

"Wanna return the favor from last night," she murmured, taking him in her hand and giving him a long, slow stroke. He exhaled a deep breath.

"Beth, you don't have to do that," he said, shaking his head. "I wanted to do that for you. You don't gotta do anythin' in return."

"But I want to," she said.

"You ever done that before?" he grunted out, finding it a little difficult to focus as she continued to slowly stroke his now full erection. Beth shook her head.

"Gotta learn sometime," she winked up at him, and Daryl shook his head again.

"No, Beth, you seriously don't have to . . ."

Daryl hissed and trailed off as Beth suddenly bent down and gave the underside of his cock one long lick from the base to the tip.

"I know I don't have to," she said, looking up at him with darkened eyes. "I want to. And it seems like you also want me to," she teased, giving his erection a squeeze with her hand.

Daryl grunted in response, unable to say anything else. Beth gave him another devilish grin and grabbed his arms, pulling him down onto the bed with her. She maneuvered him so that he was sitting with his back against the wall by the pillows, and she placed herself between his legs, staring up at him through her lashes with his erect manhood inches from her soft mouth.

"I'm learning as I go," she said. "Please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong."

"Just don't use your teeth," Daryl muttered, and Beth giggled.

"Roger that."

She propped herself up better on her elbows and took firm hold of his shaft, glancing up at him to see him watching her with darkened eyes, his pupils bleeding out into the icy blue. Beth licked her lips and looked back to his cock in front of her. She tried to remember the pointers she had read in women's magazines over the years, but decided to just go with it. There was no way she would be able to fit all of him in her mouth (it wasn't as if she was going to try to deep throat him on her first try), so she kept a hand wrapped around the base of his shaft as she tentatively placed her lips around the head of his cock. She sucked on the head a few times and then began to swirl her tongue delicately around the tip as she took more of him in her mouth. Daryl released a long breath, and she glanced up at him to see that he was watching her hungrily. The expression on his face gave her a boost of confidence.

She lowered her mouth and took as much of him as she could, pulling back up just before she felt herself almost gag. She moved her mouth up and down slowly, loving the way his hardness felt between her lips. She began moving her hand in sync with her mouth to make up for the length of him she was not able to take in her mouth, and Daryl groaned a little at the feeling. The sound encouraged her, and she increased her pace slightly. She sucked on the head every now and then as she came back up, and Daryl's breathing became heavier. Beth remembered how much she had enjoyed the way Daryl had varied the motions of his tongue the night before, and she began taking small breaks from moving her head up and down to lick the length of him, swirling her tongue around the tip. She remembered reading that the head was more sensitive than the rest, and she made sure to pay extra attention to it. After a few minutes, Daryl began to tense, his hands clutching the sheets around him tightly.

"Beth, you better stop," he croaked out.

She looked up at him and met his eyes, but didn't stop her ministrations. She maintained eye contact while she continued to move her mouth up and down his length, using the tip of her tongue to stimulate his sensitive tip each time she reached the top of his shaft. She wanted him to cum; she wanted to find out what he tasted like. The thought was strangely erotic to her, and she felt herself throb between her legs as he tensed up more.

"Beth, I'm serious, I'm gonna—"

Spurts of warm liquid hit the back of her throat suddenly, and Beth made sure to keep her lips tightly sealed around Daryl's cock. He moaned as he released himself in her warm mouth, and he was surprised when she swallowed every last drop. She sat up when he was finished and grinned at him mischievously, the salty-sweet taste of him still on her tongue.

"Fuck, Beth," Daryl panted. Her lips were swollen and pink, and he was in awe of her. "You sure you never done that before?"

She nodded and her grin became wider.

"That means it was good, right?"

Daryl released a deep breath, feeling almost lightheaded.

"Better than good."

She beamed at him, feeling happy with herself. Daryl shook his head and pulled her down to his chest. He wrapped an arm around her and held her to him.

"You're somethin' else," he muttered, and Beth laughed a little. "Gonna take a minute before I'm ready to go again, but I can take care of you in a minute, too."

"It's okay," Beth smiled up at him. "I'm actually a little tender from last night. Don't get me wrong, it was amazing, but I'm feeling the aftereffects today."

"You know I can get you off without being inside you at all," Daryl smirked, and Beth flushed a little, knowing all too well how skilled he was in that department.

"I know, but really, it's fine. You made last night about me, so I wanted to make this morning about you. But I'll take a raincheck for later today."

Daryl nodded and planted a soft kiss on the side of her head. Beth snuggled closer to him and enjoyed how warm his skin felt against hers. The cabin was quite chilly that morning, just another constant reminder that winter was upon them.

"We're gonna need to make more tripods for drying meat today. Got a lot of venison to dry. With the temperatures the way they are, it can probably keep outside for a few days, but just in case things warm up, I wanna dry as much as we can."

"Okay. I'll help you make more tripods," Beth agreed. She shivered a little at the thought of going outside in the cold and decided that despite Daryl's hesitance to go on any runs in the near future, coats were a necessity. Layering up in old flannel shirts only did so much, and she was growing weary of constantly freezing whenever she had to go outside for something, especially the long treks through the woods when Daryl made her accompany him to go hunting. She propped herself up on her elbow to look at him.

"We need to go out and find coats," she said. Daryl didn't reply, and Beth could sense his resistance to the idea. "I know you aren't keen on the idea of making a run, but it needs to happen. It's only going to get colder and neither of us have a winter coat to keep us warm outside."

Daryl sighed. "I know. It can wait another week or so though."

Beth huffed a little in irritation. "Maybe you're fine with just layering up on shirts, but I'm tired of freezing. And if you're going to keep making me come with you to hunt, I want a coat, Daryl."

"I know. Going out on a run just makes me nervous. I wanna put it off as long as we can."

"What if we have to run or something?" Beth said. "What if a herd comes through, or Cara's attackers find us and we have to make a quick getaway? Without coats, we wouldn't last long out in the elements. It's stupid not to have them, Daryl. We have to be able to protect ourselves just in case we're forced out of our shelter."

Daryl nodded. He hadn't thought about that scenario. "You're right," he sighed.

"We don't even have to go all the way into a town. We could just raid a few houses on the outskirts of Greenville or something. They're bound to have something. The coats don't have to fit well or anything, we just need something."

"Okay," Daryl reluctantly agreed. "We'll check out a few houses."

"Can we go today?"

Daryl exhaled, wishing he could put off this run for longer, but knowing Beth wouldn't give up until he agreed.

"All right. Let's get it over with today."

Beth smiled triumphantly and Daryl rolled his eyes at her.

"Let's get moving then," she said happily. "After a quick breakfast, we'll head out. If we find something usable right away, we can head back here with plenty of time to start drying the venison, too."

Daryl nodded and stood from the bed to get dressed, Beth following suit. He knew she was right, they really did need winter coats, but the thought of leaving the cabin made him uneasy. He hated not knowing how close Cara's attackers were. He hoped they had moved on from the area, but if they really were the same group as Randall's, it would seem that the group hadn't wandered far in the past year. He hoped that Beth's idea of just raiding houses on the outskirts of town would allow them to avoid any encounters, but he couldn't help feeling nervous about the whole thing. They hadn't left the cabin since they had found Cara. His need to protect Beth was stronger than ever as his feelings grew for her, and he hated not knowing if he would be able to keep her safe.

He sighed heavily and tried to take Beth's lead and be more positive about the whole thing. Just a quick run and they would be back. The initial outbreak had been in summer, so the houses would be bound to still have some coats stashed away somewhere. Daryl tried to convince himself that nothing bad would happen, that they would be back with coats in hand before midday. But convincing himself of that was harder said than done.

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**Don't freak out too much. Daryl is just being paranoid. I'm not sure I'm ready to throw more conflict into the story just yet. It will come, but probably not in the next chapter. **

**Also, just to clarify the timeline of events in this story, Daryl and Beth have been at the cabin for a little over a month now. I know I've had some chapters all spanning one day and others that skip ahead in time, so I just wanted to clear that up for anyone who is confused about the timeline. :)**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Happy Grammar Day, everyone! For editors like me, this day is sacred. Haha! **

**This chapter is super long because I haven't been able to update recently! It also gets a little dirty toward the end, so just a heads up. ;)**

**Enjoy!**

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The pair was silent on the drive toward Greenville. Daryl was absentmindedly chewing on his thumbnail as he drove, indicating that he was nervous. Beth knew he had a good reason to be uneasy, but she couldn't stop herself from feeling happy that he had agreed to this run. She was tired of being cold and she was ready to put a stop to it. She also couldn't help hoping that they would find other potential goodies while raiding houses. Her spirits were all in all quite high, despite Daryl's obvious anxiety about the whole trip.

As they neared the sign indicating that Greenville was five miles ahead, Daryl began to slow down a bit. He remembered from the last time they had come to this town that there weren't many houses on the north side of town where the highway entered. He noticed a county road up ahead and slowed to turn down the road. Any houses along this road would be isolated enough that he wouldn't feel too uneasy checking them out. He glanced at Beth and took notice of her pleasant expression. He hoped that she would have cause to keep her good mood after their task.

"There," Beth said suddenly, pointing up ahead. "Looks like a driveway."

Daryl slowed down and pulled into the private drive Beth had identified. The driveway was long and lined with trees, and the now unkempt and unruly yard looked like it had once been very well maintained. An impressive white house loomed up ahead with large white pillars adorning the spacious porch.

"Looks like a damn plantation house," Daryl muttered.

"Maybe it was," Beth shrugged. "It looks old."

Daryl pulled to a stop near the brick steps that led up to the porch. He and Beth climbed out of the truck with their weapons at the ready. The land around the large house seemed quiet, and the house appeared to have been abandoned for some time as the shutters were all closed tightly on the windows. Still, Daryl was wary, and he kept his crossbow ready as they climbed the porch steps and approached the front door. Beth pulled her pink hammer out of her belt loop and held it ready as Daryl pounded loudly on the door.

They waited a few moments, but heard no movement inside. Daryl tried the door, but it was locked. He sighed and glanced at Beth, who had a determined expression on her face.

"Ready?" he asked, and she nodded. Daryl gave the door a swift kick, followed by another, and it smashed open. He held a finger up to stop Beth from entering and waited. The house seemed quiet inside, but it was a large house, and they had no idea what could be lurking inside. Cautiously he stepped forward into the dusty neglected house. He whistled loudly, but still nothing came.

"Let's clear the first floor. Stay behind me," Daryl ordered.

Beth nodded and followed behind him as they began systematically sweeping through each room on the first floor of the house. The house was old and was quite grand, despite its lack of maintenance in recent years. It was clear that whoever had lived here before the turn had been quite wealthy. Beth cast a longing gaze at a rather magnificent white grand piano in the parlor, but she forced herself to look away. She wished she could sit down and play it, but she knew the noise could draw unwanted attention, and she would have to leave it be.

It took them longer than usual to clear the first floor due to its size, but they found no threats. They stood in the entryway and Beth couldn't help smiling.

"I'll check the hall closet for coats," Beth said. "You start raiding the kitchen."

Daryl nodded and made his way over to the spacious kitchen, leaving Beth in the entryway. She walked over to the closet by the front door and pulled the door open, revealing a full rack of coats and jackets.

"Score," Beth muttered.

She leafed through the stash of coats, all of them rather ritzy-looking, until her hands touched cool leather. She pulled out a black leather men's coat and whistled appreciatively. It didn't look like a biker jacket, but had a more vintage feel to it. It was thickly lined and the leather was in pristine condition as well. She realized that Daryl would look positively delicious in the leather coat, and she grinned and hung the coat on the door handle to give to him.

Next, her attention came to a beautiful red women's coat. The fabric seemed like heavy wool, but it was much softer to the touch. The color was a gorgeous shade of scarlet, and Beth imagined it would look wonderful paired with a rich red lipstick. She held the coat up to her body and sighed wistfully. It was long, almost to her knees, and fitted at the waist.

"Might as well put a damn target on your back if you're gonna wear that thing," Daryl's gruff voice muttered from behind her.

She glanced back at him and frowned, knowing he was right. A bright red coat like this would stand out against any landscape they would be traveling in. She sighed heavily and put the beautiful coat back in the closet.

"Do you think walkers can see color?" she wondered as she kept looking through the coats. "I mean I know they were human once, but do you think they still see color now in their second life?"

"Dunno," Daryl shrugged. "Ain't walkers I'm worried about."

Beth hummed in response and pulled out another women's coat. This one was black with a sable fur collar, and it was lined with some sort of fur as well. The coat was also fitted at the waist and flared out to knee-length, just like the red one. Beth slipped it over her shoulders and was pleased to find that it fit her quite well.

"Before the turn, I was against wearing fur," she said. "But this is so wonderfully warm that I think I have to let go of that idea."

Daryl smirked a little at her and watched her spin in a circle, the lower portion of the coat fanning out around her. Despite her messy ponytail and lack of makeup, she looked like she was a high society lady or something. It made him remember how different their upbringings had been. Even though Beth's family hadn't been as wealthy as the one who had owned this house, they still had a hell of a lot more than his family ever had. He forced himself to stop thinking such things. As Beth had once told him, he had to focus on who he was now, not who he used to be.

"Try on this leather coat," Beth said, handing him the black jacket she had hung on the closet door handle. "I think it's the closest thing to your style in here."

Daryl scoffed a little, but took the jacket from Beth anyway. He set down his crossbow and slipped the jacket over his broad shoulders. It felt strange to be wearing something so nice, but he had to admit, he liked how it felt, and judging from the way Beth was biting her lip in appreciation as she gazed at him, it probably looked good on him, too. He grinned at her and took the jacket off.

"Good find," he said. "I'll take it."

Beth smiled and went back to rummaging in the closet.

"So the kitchen was a bust?" she asked, pulling out a storage tub that contained gloves and hats. She stuffed a few pairs of gloves into her jacket pocket.

"Actually no," Daryl replied. "Several cans of veggies and some pasta and shit. But we forgot to bring in a bag, so we need to find one."

"Awesome," Beth grinned. She pushed a pair of men's gloves into Daryl's hands. "See? Wasn't this a good idea?"

Daryl shrugged. "Shit could still go south. Let's get what we need and get out of here."

Beth rolled her eyes and Daryl's paranoia and moved past him toward the kitchen carrying two large designer duffels she had found in the closet. He tossed the gloves with the coats by the door and followed Beth into the kitchen where she was already loading canned food into one of the bags. He opened another cupboard and began tossing pasta and dry goods into the other bag.

"The hell is this shit?" he muttered, pulling out a box with a word on it that he couldn't even read. Beth walked over and looked over his shoulder.

"Quinoa," she said. "It's a grain. It's really good for you, too. We should definitely take that."

Daryl shook his head and tossed the box into the bag.

"Figures rich people would eat foods I can't even pronounce," he muttered, and Beth snickered.

Once the bags were loaded with cans, dry food, and spices, they went to put the full bags by the door. Beth's eyes looked up the grand staircase.

"Can we check the upstairs?" she asked. "Please? I know we got what we need, but we might as well look while we're here."

Daryl sighed impatiently, but nodded in agreement. He went up the stairs first with his crossbow drawn. When he reached the top of the stairs, he banged loudly on the wall like he usually did, but once again, nothing came toward the sound. He and Beth quickly cleared each room before he let her out of his sight to resume looting.

He entered the master bedroom while Beth began exploring a room across the hall. The bed was massive, bigger than any bed he had ever seen. He wondered how two people could need so much space. He meandered into the attached master bathroom. He began looking through drawers, but it seemed that whoever had lived here had left with the intention of being away for a while, for there were very few toiletry items left that would be of use to him and Beth. His eyes landed on a large array of jewelry on top of an old-fashioned vanity. He knew the expensive jewelry was worth nothing now, but he was drawn to it anyway. As he looked through the rather expansive selection, a small rose-gold ring caught his eye. It had the shape of a sparrow on it. It was simple and beautiful, and it reminded him of Beth.

Daryl bit his lip, wondering if he should take the ring to give to her. He knew she would like it, but giving a woman jewelry was something he had never done. Jewelry seemed like it should have a special meaning, and he wasn't sure what the implications of such a gift would be. Especially a ring. He had feelings for Beth, but he didn't want her jumping to conclusions. He was still figuring his own feelings out. He exhaled a deep breath as he stared at the ring. Daryl was in completely unfamiliar territory, and he was at a loss for what to do.

"Fuck it," he muttered, shoving the ring deep into his pocket. He could take the ring now and decide later whether to give it to her. Besides, the likelihood that he would come across a gift like this that was so suited to Beth was slim, and he didn't want to pass up the opportunity just because he was second-guessing how she would react to such a gift. He made sure the ring was stashed securely in his pocket before leaving the room to go explore the rest of the second floor. He saw Beth in the bedroom across the hall, so he went to look in the rooms at the end of the hall.

The room Beth was exploring seemed like it had belonged to a teenage or college-aged boy. She went over to a bookcase, which contained far more movies than books, and picked up a few books that she might enjoy reading when she finished the ones she already had at the cabin. As she glanced around the room, her eyes landed on a laptop on the desk. She moved forward curiously and opened the lid. Beth pressed the power button and gave a small squeal of delight when the laptop turned on. It seemed that it still had some life left in its battery.

When the laptop came to life, Beth was faced with the familiar sight of a computer screen that she hadn't seen in years. She was flooded with memories of spending late nights on AOL instant messenger, watching funny videos on YouTube, and stalking boys she had liked on Facebook. Beth missed the Internet. She was a child of the technology age, but that time was now past.

Her face lit up when she saw that the laptop had iTunes installed. She quickly opened the program and was almost excited to tears when it opened to reveal a large selection of music. She scrolled through and grinned helplessly when she came across the Beach Boys. She double-clicked on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and almost couldn't believe it when the first notes of the song began to play from the laptop. Her smile widened until her cheeks hurt, but she couldn't help it. She had missed music so much, and to hear a band she had always loved elated her. She twirled around a little and noticed Daryl leaning against the door frame, smiling as he watched her.

"I always loved the Beach Boys," she grinned at him. "Dance with me?"

Daryl snorted. "I don't dance."

Beth rolled her eyes and moved toward him, taking hold of his hands and pulling him into the room.

"I figured as much," she said. She began twirling around him in time to the happy music. Daryl stood still with a smile on his face, and even though he didn't dance with her, Beth was fine just dancing by herself around him. When the song ended, she bounded back over to the laptop and checked the remaining battery life. The laptop still had about four hours of battery life left in it, so she quickly shut it down and snapped the lid shut, slipping the computer under her arm.

"I'm taking this," she stated happily.

"Why?" Daryl grunted. "Ain't got no use for that."

"Sure we do. It's got about four hours of battery life left in it, and that's four hours of listening to music I thought I would never hear again. That makes it totally worth taking."

Daryl rolled his eyes in amusement. "All right, we'll take it. Nothin' worth takin' in the other rooms up here. Let's get out of here."

Beth grabbed the books she wanted to take and followed Daryl out of the room with the books and laptop stashed under her arm. They made their way downstairs and quickly loaded the duffel bags and coats into the truck. Beth was still smiling as they began driving away from the house and back toward home.

* * *

The sound of music drifting through the cabin was odd to Daryl. He was used to Beth's singing, but actual recorded music from before the turn felt out of place to him. After spending the rest of their day making tripods and drying venison, they were now both stretched out on the couch after dinner, Beth already in her comfy sleep flannel, looking through the computer with music from iTunes playing in the background. Beth was looking through the photos on the computer, which she had placed on the coffee table in front of them. Some were personal photos from the young man who had owned the computer, and some were funny images he had saved from the Internet. Daryl had never owned his own computer even before the turn, so he let Beth do all the exploring.

Beth gave a little gasp when she came across some images of naked women. Daryl snorted a little at her reaction, giving her a playful nudge.

"Too dirty for your innocent eyes?" he joked, and Beth rolled her eyes.

"Shut up. Just wasn't expecting it," she retorted as she continued to flip through the images. "Wow. I wish I could have boobs like those."

Daryl narrowed his eyes at the busty naked woman on the screen.

"Nah, that's too much. I like your tits. Small and perky, just like you."

Beth laughed and leaned into him. "I don't know if you're just sayin' that to make me feel better, but I'll take it either way."

She flipped through a few more images before an idea came to her.

"If this guy had all these photos saved, I wonder if there's porn on here," she mused. Daryl arched an eyebrow at her as she navigated to the videos saved on the hard drive. Sure enough, several pornographic stills popped up the screen, likely illegally downloaded from the Internet at some point. Beth glanced at Daryl, feeling adventurous.

"We should watch one," she suggested.

"Seriously?" Daryl said. He hadn't ever been into porn much (unlike Merle, who sometimes had porn on his TV as background noise), but the thought of watching a dirty movie with Beth was actually tempting. She looked at him with her innocent, wide blue eyes and nodded.

"Which one should we watch?" Beth asked excitedly.

"You pick."

"I've never seen porn before," Beth confessed, blushing a little.

"Never?"

Beth shook her head. "I was always curious, but I was afraid that someone would walk in or find it in my search history or something, and the thought of that was too mortifying."

Daryl chuckled and shook his head at her.

"Well, it's time to pop your porn cherry, girl."

Beth giggled and randomly selected one of the videos. It was only about fifteen minutes long, and Beth instantly blushed when the video opened with a shot of a woman laying spread-eagled on a bed playing with herself. The camera moved closer to her and zoomed in to show the woman's fingers working her clit in explicit detail while she moaned loudly. Beth's blush deepened, and she glanced at Daryl, who was watching her instead of what was on the screen.

"It's so . . . vulgar," Beth murmured, and Daryl laughed a little at her.

"Well, what'd you expect?"

Beth put her hands over her warm cheeks and shrugged. She wasn't sure why the sight of another woman pleasuring herself was embarrassing for _her. _She told herself to grow up and stop blushing, but she couldn't help it. The woman's sounds started increasing in volume as she continued to play with herself, her moans throaty and loud. Beth couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"Nobody moans like that when they masturbate," she scoffed.

"How do you know?"

"Oh come on," Beth rolled her eyes again. "It's so fake."

"That's what porn is. Fake," Daryl shrugged. "Maybe that's why I wasn't really into it much. It just never seems real."

Beth nodded in agreement, her attention suddenly snagged by the video once more as a man appeared on the screen. He was also naked and his abnormally large penis was erect as he crawled toward the woman on the bed. The man placed his face between the woman's legs, and Beth bet her lip as she recalled the feeling of Daryl doing that very act to her just the day before. Daryl shifted next to her and laid back against the armrest, pulling Beth back against his chest and running his hands over her bare legs.

"What are you doing?" she murmured, her eyes still on the screen.

"What's happenin' in the video might be fake, but I'm gonna give you somethin' real," he said quietly in her ear, his voice low. Beth felt the familiar heat in the pit of her stomach at the sound of his voice, and she made no move to stop him when his touch wandered between her legs. He slipped his fingers beneath her panties and stroked the outside of her slit a few times.

"Feels like you're enjoying what you're watching," he growled in her ear. "Dirty girl."

Beth blushed again, but didn't deny it. He pushed his middle finger inside her, causing her breath to catch in her throat. Beth kept her eyes on the screen as Daryl slowly pumped his finger in and out of her. The man in the video had risen from between the woman's legs, and she took immediately took him in her mouth. Beth's eyes widened as she watched the woman swallow nearly the entire length of the man's huge cock.

"I don't think I'll ever be that good," she said, her voice somewhat breathless from Daryl's ministrations between her legs.

"Don't need to be," Daryl muttered. "What you did this mornin' was perfect."

Beth watched the woman in the video and tried to take mental notes of what she was doing. The woman was using one of her hands to palm the man's balls as she sucked him, which intrigued Beth. She decided she would have to try that on Daryl later. The scene continued for several minutes, and the man in the video finally pulled the woman off of him by her hair and pushed her down onto all fours. Beth's mouth fell open a little as the man delivered a hard smack to the woman's ass, followed by a few more. She couldn't help wondering what it would feel like for Daryl to spank her, and she actually grew wetter at the thought. Daryl slipped a second finger inside her, curling both of them toward her stomach as he moved. She could feel his erection against her lower back and was glad to know he was just as turned on as she was.

Beth's breathing was becoming heavy as she watched the man on the screen ruthlessly thrust himself into the woman's pussy from behind, periodically delivering more smacks to her ass as he moved. Daryl began moving his thumb against Beth's clit, and Beth let out a soft moan. Part of her wanted to close her eyes and give herself to the pleasure Daryl was giving her, but the other part of her couldn't stop watching the video in front of her. She had never seen something so dirty, and the fact that Daryl was pleasuring her while she watched it was making Beth even more aroused.

The man in the video pulled the woman's ass cheeks apart and ran his thumb between them, causing Beth's mouth to drop a little. She knew some women liked to be touched there, but actually seeing it was a bit of a shock for her. She watched as the man penetrated the woman's ass with his finger, and she couldn't comprehend how such a thing could feel good. She also couldn't comprehend why watching it was turning her on further. It was as if she was witnessing something forbidden, and the fact that she thought she wasn't supposed to like seeing it had the opposite effect.

Beth could feel herself getting close to orgasm, her breath coming in sharp pants as Daryl's fingers expertly pleasured her. She could feel how incredibly wet she was, and she couldn't believe how aroused watching porn had managed to make her. Her eyes fluttered shut as she reached her release, giving breathless moans as Daryl worked her through her climax. When she opened her eyes again, the couple on the screen had changed positions, but Beth was no longer focused on the video.

She flipped around to face Daryl and wasted no time in unfastening his pants and pulling his erection free. While she quickly tugged down her panties, Daryl reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a condom, which he quickly tore open and rolled on. Beth climbed on top of Daryl with her legs straddling him on either side. She aligned his tip with her dripping entrance and slowly slid down onto him, both of them releasing quiet moans as she impaled herself on him. Beth began to slowly roll her hips, unable to contain her moans of pleasure as the length of his cock hit just the right spot inside her over and over again.

Daryl licked his fingertips and reached between their bodies to rub her clit. Beth jumped at the contact, still sensitive from her recent orgasm, and increased the pace of her hips. She rocked against Daryl, trying to get more friction inside her where she needed it. She was getting close again. She could hear the sounds of the porn in the background, but she barely paid attention to them. What she needed was right in front of her.

Daryl suddenly grabbed both of Beth's ass cheeks and lifted her from his lap. He began driving himself into her fast and hard. It was exactly what Beth needed to come crashing over the edge. She came hard, her muscles clenching tight around him and a wave of dizziness washing over her as Daryl pounded into her through her orgasm. A few moments later, he buried himself inside her as deep as he could go and ceased his movements, reaching his own release.

He lowered Beth back to his lap and threw his head back on the couch, worn out. Beth was panting and flushed, and Daryl couldn't help grinning at her.

"We should find a way to watch porn more often," he said. "That was pretty fuckin' amazing."

Beth giggled and put her arms around his neck.

"I feel dirty," she said with a little laugh.

"You are dirty," Daryl smirked. "You're my filthy, dirty girl, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

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**Thanks for reading! On a side note, a guest reviewer asked if I would be incorporating the rest of the group into this story. While I don't want to give any of the story away, I will say that some of the group will make an appearance, but not all of them. You'll find out who in due time. :) Please review!**


	21. Chapter 21

**This chapter is super fluffy, but heads up, conflict is coming soon! I wanted to give you some extra fluff to make the conflict easier when it arrives. ;)**

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The days turned into weeks, and Beth and Daryl had settled into a fairly routine life at the cabin. Most mornings, they would begin the day with a hunt, as Daryl would still not let Beth out of his sight for longer than a few minutes. The warm coats they had found a month prior proved to be great protection from the elements, and Beth found that she was rarely cold while outside with Daryl. Her tracking skills were also vastly improving, as was her ability to use Daryl's crossbow. With as much practice as she was getting, Beth was sure that she would be able to go out and hunt down a meal on her own if she ever needed to.

The only conflict they had run into as of late had been a passing herd that had come through the woods a few weeks back. The pair had been inside the cabin playing a card game when they had heard the moans coming through the woods. The herd was large, but nowhere near the size of the one that had driven them off the farm so long ago, and they had decided to stay put and stay quiet to hopefully wait the horde of walkers out. Their plan had worked, and after several hours of staying as still and quiet as possible, the herd had moved on with only a few stragglers getting snagged on the sharpened fence posts outside the cabin. The fact that they had been able to survive a passing herd without leaving the sanctuary of the cabin made them both feel more confident in the ability of their shelter to keep them safe.

Things had been going so well that Beth had even managed to convince Daryl to go on another supply run the week before. Their vast supply of condoms had begun to dwindle, seeing as their lustful appetites for one another were seemingly insatiable, and the pair had made a successful run to the Greenville pharmacy to remedy the situation. They had returned home with another large supply of condoms, as well as many months' worth of birth control pills for Beth. The run had gone without a hitch, and Beth hoped that Daryl would be willing to start making more runs soon. She had almost exhausted her supply of books and she hoped she would be able to go search for more before she read through them all.

One morning, Daryl shook Beth awake from under her large pile of blankets in the bed. The living room and kitchen were able to be decently heated by the wood stove and the fireplace, but the bedroom lacked such comforts, and Beth had piled as many blankets as she could find on the bed to combat the chilly room. Sleeping next to Daryl provided some warmth, but he often woke before her, prompting her to burrow deeper into the stack of blankets when he rose each morning.

"What is it?" Beth mumbled sleepily, not wanting to come out of her warm little haven beneath the covers.

"Come see," Daryl replied with a smile, and Beth sighed and rubbed her eyes.

"Why do you always have to get up so early?" she mumbled grumpily, and Daryl grinned cheekily at her.

"This is worth getting up for. C'mon."

Beth sighed again and tossed back her warm covers, shivering as the cold morning air washed over her. She had taken to wearing her old sweatpants she had taken from the farmhouse all those weeks ago, but even the sweatpants couldn't keep the chill of the room at bay. She stretched and shuffled out of the bedroom on sock-covered feet. Daryl had already lit a fire in the fireplace, and it was starting to warm the cold air in the cabin.

Daryl went to the front door and opened it, stepping aside to reveal what he had woken Beth to see. A thin layer of snow had fallen overnight, blanketing the woods around them in white. The snow was still falling, and though it was light, the sight was magical to Beth. She grinned excitedly at Daryl, who shared the smile. Snow was a rare thing in Georgia, and it had been a long time since Beth had witnessed it.

"Wow," she breathed, reveling in how beautiful the snow made everything seem.

"Thought it'd be worth wakin' you for," Daryl shrugged, the smile still on his face.

Beth nodded excitedly and took a step forward out onto the porch.

"You're gonna get your socks wet," Daryl said, and Beth shrugged.

"I don't care. I want to feel the snow on my face."

Daryl laughed a little and stepped forward, motioning for her to climb on his back.

"C'mon, hop up."

Beth grinned and obliged, and she couldn't help remembering the last time Daryl had given her a piggyback outside the funeral home over two months ago. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and leaned her head against him, enjoying the smell of sweat and leather coming from his angel wing vest. Daryl strode out onto the porch and down the steps, stopping in front of the barbed wire fence so that Beth could feel the snow. The tiny flakes melted as they landed on her skin, and she couldn't wipe the smile from her face.

Beth could see Daryl's profile and knew that he was smiling, too. She giggled at the way the snowflakes stood out against his dark hair and wrapped her arms tighter around him. She felt her chest swell with happiness. During the past month, Beth's feelings for Daryl had only grown stronger, and for the past week or so, she had been questioning whether she was still falling in love with him or whether she was already there. She had never been in love with a man before, and she wasn't sure when things changed from _falling_ for someone to being _in_ love with someone. It was new territory for her, and she wasn't sure how to interpret her own feelings. But in that moment, Beth suddenly knew. She knew without a doubt that she was 100% in love with Daryl Dixon.

The revelation was groundbreaking for her, but she kept her mouth shut. As much as she wanted to blurt out her feelings right then and there, she knew that probably wasn't the wisest idea. Daryl never talked about his feelings, and granted, neither did she, but she knew that such a declaration could make him very uncomfortable. She knew Daryl cared for her deeply; she could tell from the way he spoke to her, the way he touched her, and the way he looked at her. But talking about feelings was something Daryl had always avoided, and the last thing she wanted to do was to scare him away. Beth decided she would tell him eventually, but for now, she was satisfied to keep the revelation of her feelings to herself.

She planted a kiss on his cheek and shivered a little, prompting Daryl to turn and head back up the porch steps, setting her down again when they reached the doorway. Beth flashed him a grateful smile and felt her cheeks flushing a bit when he smiled back at her, something that had to be due to her very recent realization of the depth of her feelings for him. She turned away from him to hide her blushing cheeks and went to warm her hands by the fire.

"You know, it's been about a month since we celebrated Thanksgiving," she observed. "Maybe we should make today our Christmas. So we can have a white Christmas. It'd be a first for me."

Beth glanced at Daryl and saw him shrug a little. She remembered his admission that he had never gotten anything for Christmas during their first game of "I Never," and although she had nothing to give him, she wanted to celebrate with him anyway. He walked over and stood next to her by the fire, but said nothing.

"I could go search for more hickory nuts to candy as a sweet treat," Beth suggested, attempting to persuade him.

"Okay," he said finally, giving a single nod. Beth grinned happily. She leaned against him and he wrapped an arm around her as they warmed themselves by the fire.

"I wish I had a gift for you," Beth sighed, but Daryl immediately shook his head.

"Don't need nothin'. I got everything I could ever want right here," he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"Are you saying that all you want for Christmas is me?" Beth teased, and she began humming the song that had been one of her Christmas favorites. Daryl rolled his eyes.

"You're corny. But yeah."

She giggled and turned to stand in front of him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Merry Christmas, Daryl," she murmured as she looked up at him with a dazzling smile. "My heart is yours."

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The light snow continued to fall throughout the morning. After a light breakfast, the pair had bundled up and headed out to hunt down their Christmas dinner. Beth had also taken a small bag to collect hickory nuts to candy for dessert, and her good mood was contagious. Daryl had never been happy that it was Christmas before, but Beth made it impossible for him not to be. He followed behind her as they walked through the woods, allowing her to take the lead on the tracking effort as he so often did these days, and listened to her talk about her family's Christmas traditions.

Daryl's thoughts kept wandering back to the sparrow ring that he still kept hidden from Beth back at the cabin. He had stashed the small ring in a box of nails that he kept in the toolbox, knowing she was not likely to accidentally stumble across it there. Over the past month, there had been a few moments when he had wanted to spontaneously give the ring to her, but each time, he had chickened out, still unsure of how she would react to it. But now, considering that Beth had declared the day to be Christmas, it seemed like the perfect day to give it to her. The thought of doing so filled him with anxiety.

Daryl had no problems acknowledging that he had deep feelings for Beth. He had never felt this way about anyone in his entire life. She even meant more to him than family, which, for Daryl, was saying something. Still, he found that he was completely lost when it came to describing his feelings for her. Was he in love with her? He really had no idea. He had never known what it felt like to be in love with a woman, and maybe, just maybe, these feelings he had for Beth were just that: love. The thought scared the shit out of him.

Suddenly, Beth's hand on his arm jerked him out of his thoughts. She nodded her head toward a rabbit sitting nearby. It hadn't taken them long to find the rabbit, as the fresh snow had made tracking a lot easier. He slowly handed Beth his loaded crossbow and watched as she took aim and released the bolt into her target.

"Hello, Christmas dinner!" she exclaimed triumphantly. He took the crossbow back from her while she bounded away to collect her kill. As she made her way back toward him, he was struck by her beauty, as he often was these days. The cold had flushed her cheeks, and the snow had collected in her blonde hair and on her ritzy black coat. The way her smile completely lit up her eyes made his heart squeeze painfully in his chest, and he couldn't help smiling happily back at her as she handed him the bolt to his crossbow and the freshly killed rabbit, which he tied to his belt.

Beth held her hand out to him, which he gladly took, lacing their gloved fingers together. They walked back to the cabin hand in hand, Beth still chattering away about Christmas memories, and Daryl was unable to stop himself from smiling the whole way home.

Though the fire was almost out when they arrived back at the cabin, it had heated the room nicely. Beth placed the bag of hickory nuts she had managed to find on the kitchen counter, and Daryl left the rabbit on the porch to skin and gut later. His eyes landed on the toolbox, which also remained on the porch, and before he could rethink things, he quickly opened it and fished the small sparrow ring out of the box of nails. He slipped the ring into his pocket and followed Beth back inside.

"I wonder how much snow is going to fall," Beth mused as she removed her coat and went to warm her hands by the dying fire. Daryl removed his own coat and went to stand beside her, his throat constricting a little in anxiety. Beth seemed to sense his tension and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He cleared his throat awkwardly and felt the back of his neck turning red.

"I, um," he stammered, feeling like an idiot all of a sudden. "I have somethin' for you. Somethin' I thought you might like."

"What do you mean?" Beth asked with a frown.

"I been holdin' onto it for a while 'cause I wasn't sure if I was gonna give it to you, but since it's Christmas and all, I thought I should."

"Daryl, what are you talking about?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small rose gold ring, the sparrow glinting in the light. He thrust it toward her awkwardly, chewing on his lip as he waited for her to take it. Beth looked down to the small piece of jewelry in his hand and her eyes widened. She reached forward and took the ring from his grasp, a smile spreading across her face.

"Saw it in the house where we found the coats. Reminded me of you."

"Daryl, it's perfect," she murmured softly, quickly slipping it onto her ring finger on her right hand. It fit perfectly and shimmered in the light as she held up her hand to observe it. "I love it."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. Thank you!"

She lifted her hands and cupped his face between them, bringing his lips to hers for a soft kiss. Daryl could feel the cool metal of the ring against his cheek and smiled a little into the kiss, feeling immensely relieved that she liked the ring. Beth pulled away and shared his smile, her blue eyes staring into his own.

"Who knew Daryl Dixon could be a romantic?" she teased, and Daryl scoffed, the back of his neck reddening again. He could only imagine what Merle or anyone else who knew him would say about this, but then again, he didn't care. Beth made him able to be many things that he wasn't able to be before, and if that included a romantic, that was fine by him if it meant it would make her happy.

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**If anyone is curious about what the ring looks like, I got the inspiration from a ring made by a seller on Etsy by the name of ShopEliAndLeah! Since the site doesn't permit outside links, you'll have to look it up yourself if you are curious. It's the sparrow bird ring in 14K rose gold. :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**I am SO sorry for the wait on this chapter! I've been very busy lately, and when I had free time, I just wasn't in a writing mood. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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Beth could see her breath in the cold cabin air when she woke. Daryl's arm was slung over her waist, holding her body close to his with her back pressed against his chest. She was cozy under the covers, particularly with Daryl's warm body pressed against hers, and she dreaded leaving the warmth of the bed to start their day. Sometimes, the moments just after waking up next to Daryl were her favorite part of the day.

Beth listened to the even sound of Daryl's breathing, knowing it meant that she had woken before him for once. She shifted a little in an attempt to get closer to him. He was shirtless, and the warmth from his skin against her was wonderfully comforting. Even though temperatures had risen recently, melting the snow that had fallen a few days prior, the cabin was still always so chilly in the mornings. Daryl seemed to sense Beth's need to be closer to him, and his arm tugged her further into him in his sleep. Beth grinned to herself at the gesture, loving that Daryl could make her feel wanted even when he wasn't conscious.

Beth's grin grew wider when she felt something hard pressing against her backside. It amused her to think that even approaching 40 years of age, Daryl still often got morning wood. She couldn't stop herself from pressing her ass harder against him. His hold tightened on her, but he seemed to still be asleep. Grinning deviously to herself, she ground her backside against him. She heard a sharp intake of breath and turned her head to meet Daryl's now-open eyes. She pressed her ass against his erection again and eyed him with an impish grin.

"Good morning," she said lightly.

Daryl growled a little in response and nuzzled his face into her hair. His hands firmly grasped her hips and he ground himself against her. Beth wriggled against him, and her movements prompted him to slide one of his hands down her abdomen and beneath the waistband of her sweatpants. She bit her lip as his touch moved lower, her fingers gripping the blankets tighter as his rough fingers reached the spot between her legs. Daryl grinned into her hair when he found that she was just as wet as he was hard.

Beth drew in a sharp breath when Daryl slowly pressed his middle finger inside her. He slowly moved the digit in and out a few times before gliding her wetness up to her clit. Beth moaned quietly as he moved his moistened fingertip in tight circles. She loved that he knew just the right way to touch her, and she quickly spread her legs to give him easier access, throwing her top leg over Daryl's legs so that she could still feel his hardness pressing against her backside. He increased the speed of his touches, and although Beth knew she would quickly reach orgasm if he continued, she wanted more. She reached behind her and palmed his erection through his pants. Daryl knew what she wanted, and he quickly unfastened them and freed himself from the confines of his pants. Beth tugged her sweatpants down and reached behind her to seize his cock, giving him a few slow strokes before guiding him to her wet entrance.

Daryl didn't stop circling Beth's clit as he slowly entered her from behind. Both of them moaned at the feeling. Daryl couldn't believe how wet and tight Beth always was; it never failed to turn him on beyond belief. He set a slow, steady pace, plunging his length into her as deep as he could go with each thrust. The feeling of his cock bottoming out inside her was almost painful, but the combination of the near pain mixed with the waves of pleasure she was receiving from his touch on her clit was enough to soon send her spiraling over the edge.

"Daryl," Beth gasped, her back arching and her toes curling as her orgasm crashed over her.

Daryl groaned as he felt her tightening around him while she came. He continued to thrust into her until she had ridden out her orgasm before regretfully pulling out of her slick warmth. He quickly reached over her and grabbed a condom from the bedside table drawer. As much as he loved fucking her bareback, he knew he wouldn't last much longer, and even with Beth taking birth control, he didn't want to risk it. He rolled the condom on and flipped Beth onto her back. She yelped and giggled at the sudden movement, but her amusement quickly vanished when Daryl aggressively seized her wrists and pinned them above her head. The dark look in his eyes made her physically shiver and throb between her legs.

Daryl kept Beth's hands pinned down as he roughly thrust into her, causing her to cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure. He held her gaze as he slowly withdrew and thrust in again hard. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were dark with desire like his own, and Daryl couldn't stop himself from increasing his pace. He drove himself into her ruthlessly, his dominance and pace rapidly bringing Beth to another orgasm. She cried out his name again, which quickly sent him over the edge as well. He buried himself as deep as he could inside her as he came with an animalistic groan before collapsing on top of her, both of them panting for breath.

Beth ran her hands through Daryl's hair and sighed contentedly.

"A good morning just turned into a great morning," she said. "I love waking up this way."

"Absolutely," Daryl agreed, still a bit out of breath. He raised his head and leaned down to give Beth a soft kiss before heaving himself off of her and removing the condom. He tied it shut and stood from the bed to toss it in the trash can across the room. The cold air of the bedroom caused goosebumps to arise on his skin, and he resisted the urge to scurry back in bed with Beth, instead opting to get dressed. She sat up in bed, holding the covers against her chest.

"Can I convince you to toss me some fresh clothes?" she asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes in an exaggerated manner. Daryl snorted a little, but went to the dresser anyway and tossed her some clothes. Beth grinned at him in thanks and dressed under the covers before resigning herself to getting out of the warm bed.

She shuffled out into the living room, where Daryl had gone to light a fire in the fireplace. She went to stand beside him and reached her hands out toward the flames for warmth. She couldn't help admiring the sparrow ring on her right hand. Ever since Daryl had given it to her a few days before, she couldn't stop looking at it whenever she had a chance. The sight of it always gave her a jolt of happiness, but it also reminded her of her feelings for Daryl. She wished she had the courage to outright tell him that she loved him, but she was still working up the guts to do it. The last thing she wanted to do was scare him away, especially when things had been going so well between them.

Daryl left her side and went into the kitchen to fetch some dried rabbit meat for their breakfast. He made his way back over to her and handed her several pieces, which she accepted graciously. The dried meat wasn't very tasty, but it was a good and easy source of protein.

"Wanna head out huntin' soon?" Daryl asked as they chewed on their small breakfast.

"Sure," Beth agreed. They hadn't gone hunting the previous two days, as their hunt three days prior had yielded three fat rabbits that had lasted them until the night before. Daryl usually preferred to hunt in the morning; he liked knowing they had meat for a meal later in the day. It eased his mind.

After they finished breakfast, they donned their shoes and coats and made their way outside. The melted snow had left the ground muddy and wet, and Beth grimaced at the mess the mud was making of her shoes. They had barely left sight of the cabin before Daryl released an arrow into a squirrel scurrying up a tree next to Beth, startling her a bit. Daryl gave her a bit of a smirk and went to retrieve his kill.

Beth shook her head at him and took the lead, her eyes trained on the ground looking for animal tracks. The mud made tracks easier to see, but she hated the slimy feeling beneath her boots. She moved slowly and quietly, careful not to lose her balance in the slick mud. She couldn't hear Daryl moving behind her, but she could sense him. Suddenly she stopped, her eyes landing on some tracks that were unmistakable. She looked back to Daryl, who was also eying the tracks with a deep frown on his face.

"People," he grunted. He moved past her and approached the clear human footprints in the mud. They were headed north, toward the direction of the road. "Looks like three sets of prints."

Beth's heart was pounding as she looked at the tracks. Daryl looked up at her, worry lining his face.

"We should head back. Cover our tracks. Maybe not head out here for a day or two. Hopefully whoever made these won't find us."

Beth frowned. "What if it's our people? How do we know it wasn't them who made these tracks?"

Daryl shrugged. "We don't."

"Then . . . then why don't we follow them and find out?" she asked. Daryl's expression hardened.

"Cause I really don't want to follow 'em to find out it ain't them. What if it's the people we've been hopin' to avoid?"

"But what if it isn't? What if it's people from our group? What if we miss them because we're too busy hiding from something that might not even be a threat anymore?"

Daryl stalked over to Beth, his brow creased with worry. "Other people are _always_ a threat, Beth," he growled. "I know you'd like to think these tracks might be from people in our group, but chances are, they ain't. I'm not riskin' putting ourselves in harm's way just to find out."

"If that's the way you're going to be, then we'll never find our group," Beth snapped. "If you're so set on avoiding all other people, how will we ever find them?"

Daryl gave a one-shouldered shrug.

"Do you even want to find them anymore?" Beth asked.

"Course I do," Daryl sighed. "But I ain't about to put you at risk to do it. I'm sorry, Beth, but that's just the way it is."

Beth narrowed her eyes. "Since when is your word final? You are _not_ in charge of me, Daryl. I have just as much say in this as you do."

"Not in this," Daryl argued. "We ain't followin' these tracks. We're goin' back to the cabin, and if I gotta tie you up to keep you there, so be it."

Normally, Beth would have made a sexual joke about Daryl's comment, but she was too upset with him to do so. He wasn't her keeper, they were in this together as partners in survival and life. She couldn't believe he had the gall to try to make decisions for the both of them without even considering her input. She was her own person and a grown adult, not a child in Daryl's care. And the fact that he wouldn't even consider the notion that the footprints could have been made by their long lost family was beyond disappointing for her. It was as if he had given up on them completely, and it made her feel lost and sad.

Beth knew they hadn't exactly been making any efforts to find their group while spending the winter at the cabin. She also knew that she had been selfishly enjoying living with Daryl on their own, and she wasn't sure she was ready for how things would inevitably change if or when they were reunited with their group. But regardless of these facts, she still wanted to find them. In her naïve and hopeful mind, she had imagined that they would safely spend the winter in their secluded cabin and then somehow reunite with their group when spring came. Such a dream was ridiculous if she really thought about it, but her hopeful side couldn't let it go. She wasn't ready to let her family go, and it seemed as though Daryl already had.

"You think we'll never see them again. Don't you?" Beth asked. Her angry tone had softened and now just sounded sad. Daryl sighed heavily.

"I dunno. We been separated from 'em for months now, Beth. Who knows where they are now, or even if any of 'em even made it out of the prison. We got no idea. I know you still wanna find 'em, but the chances that these tracks were made by any of 'em are pretty slim. You gotta know that."

Beth said nothing, her gaze drifting back to the tracks leading north. She knew Daryl was probably right, but the hopeful side of her couldn't let it go so easily. Tears pricked her eyes as she thought about the reality of what Daryl was saying. The chances of the tracks being from their group were low, as he said, but there was still a chance. However Daryl's determined expression and stubborn stance made it clear to her that she would never know. She sighed heavily and turned away from Daryl and the tracks, making her way back toward the cabin without a word.


	23. Chapter 23

**I apologize that this chapter is shorter than usual. I just really wanted to get this chapter out so that I didn't keep you waiting as long as last time! **

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Beth was quiet for the rest of the day, only giving one-word responses when Daryl asked her something. Daryl knew she was upset that he didn't even give following the tracks a chance, but it really was too big of a risk to take. He had to look at the facts. Both of them really had no idea who had made it out of the prison, and if anyone had made it out, they had no idea where their group could have gone. They could be many miles away or nearby. Daryl and Beth had been surviving alone together with no sign of their group for over three months. But since they had no concrete evidence that any members of their group were still alive, presuming human tracks to be theirs seemed like just a pipe dream to Daryl. They did, however, know for a fact that dangerous people had been nearby just a little over a month ago. To Daryl, that evidence was stronger than the hope that the tracks could have been made by their group, or even by decent people. In Daryl's mind, it was safer to presume that those who had made the tracks were dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

He had tried to explain this logic to Beth, but she had stonewalled him and refused to even look at him. He could see that she had resigned herself to not following the tracks, and she didn't even try to fight him on the matter any further. Daryl was relieved that Beth wasn't going to go marching off on her own after the tracks, but he had expected her to argue with him more. He wasn't expecting her to shut down as she had done. The morose expression remained fixated on her face, and overall she just looked defeated. He wished he could say or do something to bring the light back to her eyes, but it seemed that she just needed time to accept the situation. Beth had always been such a positive, hopeful person, and the reality that Daryl believed their group to be long gone was a hard thing for her to accept.

As the hours passed by, the palpable tension in the cabin was bothersome for Daryl. Beth had been sitting on the couch staring blankly into the fire for several hours, and he was practically wearing a hole in the floor from his pacing. He kept stalking to different windows and searching the woods around the cabin, looking for signs of the people who had made the tracks. The absence of Beth's usual cheerful chatter was driving him crazy, which was ironic considering that three months prior, he would have given anything for her to keep quiet like this. By the time evening rolled around, Daryl was unable to stand the oppressive silence any longer. He stalked over to the couch and knelt before it, grasping Beth's hands in his own somewhat forcefully.

"Beth, please talk to me," he pleaded.

Her sad eyes met his and she sighed. "What do you want me to say?"

"Anything. Just talk to me, girl."

Beth dropped his gaze and looked to their intertwined hands in her lap. She was silent for a few moments, but thankfully soon opened her mouth to speak.

"I just . . . I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that you don't think we'll find our group. And I'm having a harder time coming to grips with the fact that you're probably right."

Daryl sighed and squeezed Beth's hands. He hated how crestfallen she looked.

"Maybe we'll find 'em. I ain't sayin' it's impossible—"

"We won't find them if we aren't even looking," Beth cut him off. "I know we can't really do much with winter upon us and all, but we've been too busy living our own comfortable life to actively _do _something to find them."

"We'll start lookin' again come spring."

"I know," Beth sighed. "I know we will. But I can't help feeling disappointed in myself for not even thinking about looking for them the past several weeks. I've just been so happy living here with you that I put our group on the back burner."

Daryl knew that this conversation shouldn't be about the two of them, but he couldn't help feeling his chest swell a little upon hearing that Beth was so happy living with him. He tried to push the feeling away and looked at her sincerely.

"We'll look for them, Beth. As soon as we can. Ain't nothin' wrong with enjoying what we got until then." He cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "I really like livin' with you, too. You . . . you make me happier than anyone ever has."

The corners of Beth's mouth turned up into a slight smile, most of her sadness vanishing, which made Daryl feel victorious. He could feel the tips of his ears turning red at his admission, but he tried to ignore it and hoped Beth didn't notice. It was embarrassing that she could still make him blush.

"That's why we gotta be as careful as we can," he continued. "We don't know who made those footprints, and I ain't willin' to risk anything happening to you. I can't lose you, Beth. Not again. What if I couldn't get you back this time? What if you were gone for good? I . . . I couldn't take that."

"I'm not going anywhere," Beth said, shaking her head determinedly. "And neither are you. We'll keep each other safe."

Daryl nodded. "Yeah. And to do that, right now that means avoidin' other people. I know it's hard to let the possibility of it bein' our group go, but you gotta do that, Beth. I couldn't take it if somethin' happened to you. You mean too much to me. Fuck, Beth, you're everythin' to me."

Daryl looked away from Beth's eyes, and he almost looked shy. Daryl never talked about his feelings, and hearing him express these sentiments warmed her heart. Beth gave his hands a squeeze, afraid of saying anything that might ruin this moment of vulnerability, but at the same time wanting to take full advantage of this moment between them. Her breathing felt shallow in her chest and she could almost hear her heart thumping in her ears.

"I love you, Daryl," Beth said quietly, surprised at how firm her voice actually sounded.

Daryl's blue eyes snapped back to hers, blinking a few times as if he wasn't sure he had heard her correctly. Beth saw several emotions pass over his face, moving from shocked to unsure to hopeful.

"You . . . what?" he croaked out, his voice breaking a little.

His eyes were wide in disbelief, and Beth suddenly realized that this may have been the first time anyone had ever said those words to him, especially in this context. Her heart swelled with emotion, and she was overwhelmed by her feelings for him. She smiled earnestly down at him.

"I love you," Beth repeated, louder this time.

Daryl's stunned expression remained, but his stare slowly became intense and fierce. He leaned into her, pulling her from the couch and into his lap on the floor. His strong arms held her tightly to his chest, squeezing as if he never wanted to release her. He pressed a firm kiss to the top of her head and Beth's eyes fluttered closed in his embrace. Though he had said nothing in response, this was the only reply Beth needed.

They stayed still for several long minutes, both clutching one another as if their lives depended on it. The way Beth was enveloped in Daryl's arms eased away most of the melancholy she had been feeling earlier, and she sighed contentedly. The disappointment over their lost group was still there, but it was manageable. She still desperately wanted to find them, but right now, Daryl was more than enough. He was everything Beth needed at that moment.

Suddenly Daryl's head quickly rose from their embrace, and Beth looked up to see what had prompted his sudden movement. His eyes were narrowed and he looked as though he were listening for something. Frowning, Beth disentangled herself from his arms and stood, Daryl following suit. He quickly moved to a window and peeked through the gaps in the boards covering the glass. Beth's heart began pounding.

"What is it?" she asked quietly.

Then she heard it, too. Voices. They were faint, but they seemed to be growing louder. A mixture of panic, hope, and anxiety filled her. She needed to know who the voices belonged to. She hurried to the window and stood next to Daryl, both of them scanning the trees around the cabin. For a few moments, they saw nothing, but then the sources of the sounds emerged through the trees. Three men, each with automatic weapons slung across their bodies, were approaching the cabin. Beth clutched Daryl's arm in fear as she watched them evaluating her and Daryl's home. Her blood ran cold when the men started toward it, their guns raised.

"Beth," Daryl hissed, his voice rough and strained. "Hide."

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**I know, I'm evil for ending it here! I hope you can forgive me. Reviews will help me write the next chapter faster! *hint hint* ;)**


	24. Chapter 24

**I feel like this chapter could have been stronger, but I didn't want to keep you waiting while I edited it forever. Hope you enjoy. :)**

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"Beth," Daryl hissed, his voice rough and strained. "Hide."

Her wide blue eyes met his, and she quickly pulled his lips to hers in a firm kiss before pulling away and giving him a meaningful look upon her retreat toward the back of the cabin. Daryl watched her slip into the bathroom and heard her hiding herself behind the shower curtain. The bed in the cabin was too low to the ground to fit under, and closets were likely to be searched for supplies if the men approaching were so inclined to look for such. The shower really was the best place for her to hide, but Daryl wished there could be something more substantial than a shower curtain between Beth and the potential intruders. He took a quick glance about the cabin for any clues that would lead to her discovery, and he found himself quite thankful that she was so tidy. As long as no one went rummaging in the dresser in the bedroom or in the bedside table where their condoms were kept, there was no obvious sign that a woman lived here with him.

Daryl turned his attention back to the approaching men. All three had their guns drawn in front of them, and he quickly took note of the other weapons he could see. One man had a hunting rifle slung across his back, and he could see another man had a handgun clipped to his belt. All three also appeared to have knives. Daryl swallowed dryly as he realized just how much better armed the men were than him. Still, he had to defend his and Beth's home, and most importantly, he had to protect Beth. The woman who loved him.

He grabbed his crossbow and quickly loaded it before taking a deep breath and pulling the door of the cabin open. The three men turned their guns toward him, and he kept his crossbow aimed at them.

"What's your business here?" he called out gruffly.

None of the men answered him, but they glanced at each other briefly before one of them spoke.

"This your place?"

Daryl nodded once.

"Anyone else live here with you?"

"Just me," Daryl grunted.

One of the men began taking slow steps toward the cabin, and the other two began to follow his movements.

"That's close enough," Daryl growled.

One of the men smirked. "You're outnumbered," he said. "If you fire on us, we'd be able to put you down before you could even get your hands on another arrow to reload. So I'd advise you to be smart about this."

"What do you want?"

"A place to bed down for the night would be nice," the man said. "Sun's going down soon, and your setup looks pretty damn good. How 'bout you invite us in and let us crash for the night?"

"And if I don't?"

"I don't think you have much of a choice. Being outnumbered as you are."

"We ain't gonna harm you, unless you give us reason to," another man chimed in. "Just lookin' for a safe place to sleep is all."

"How do I know you won't kill me and take this house for yourselves as soon as I let you in?" Daryl asked with narrowed eyes.

"You don't," one of the men said with a shrug. "But that ain't our intent. We got our own secure camp, 'bout ten miles north of here. Ain't got no use for your place except for tonight."

Daryl continued to hold his crossbow high, eying the men with distrust.

"And like we said, you really don't have much of a choice."

As much as Daryl hated to admit it, the men were right. He really didn't have much of a choice. He could refuse to let them in and then get killed as a result, thus leaving Beth unprotected, or he could let them in and hope that he would get a chance to kill them once their guard was down. If they really were looking for a place to crash for the night, maybe he could kill them in their sleep. He just prayed that none of them were interested in the possibility of a shower so that Beth could remain undetected until he had the opportunity to act.

"A'right then," Daryl muttered, slowly lowering his crossbow. The three other men lowered their weapons as well and made their way through both fences and up to the porch.

"Appreciate you bein' so accommodating," one of the men said slightly sarcastically as he climbed the porch steps. Daryl glared in return, and the man chuckled. "Relax, man. Like we said, unless you give us a reason, we ain't gonna hurt you. I'm Jack, and that's Ethan and Kelly."

"Daryl."

"Good to meet you, Daryl," the man called Ethan said.

The three men entered the cabin and Daryl closed the door behind them. Jack whistled as he looked around.

"You got a great little place here," he said. "How long you been here?"

"Couple months."

"And you've been on your own all this time?"

Daryl nodded. "Had a group a while back, but got separated from 'em and found this place."

"Looks like you're doin' pretty good on your own," the man named Kelly observed. "Say, you got any food here? We was out on a hunt but came up dry. Would really appreciate a meal."

The tone of his voice was far from polite, and the request sounded more like an order. Daryl's eyes scanned over the three men who were looking around the cabin. His pulse quickened when he saw Ethan head toward the back of the cabin, but the man simply peeked in the bedroom and made his way back out to the living room area.

"Kitchen's there," Daryl grunted with a nod toward the area. "Help yourself."

Kelly strode over to the small kitchen and began going through the cabinets. He let out an appreciative whistle at the sight of the decent supply of canned food.

"You got quite the stash of food here," he stated. "Fellas, we're gonna eat a good meal tonight."

Daryl's grip tightened on his crossbow at the thought of these men making a dent in his and Beth's supply of food. Food they had worked hard to find. He kept his mouth shut, however, watching the men with narrowed eyes. He noticed that Jack was studying him and had obviously taken note of Daryl's tension. The man's gaze drifted down to Daryl's white-knuckled grip on the crossbow. He smirked and slowly sauntered closer to Daryl.

"I know you ain't happy 'bout us droppin' in like this," Jack stated. "But like we said. Long as you don't do nothin' stupid, we ain't gonna hurt you. I can see by the way you're holdin' your bow that you'd try to hurt us in a heartbeat if you got the chance. But think again, friend. The camp we live at is big, real big, and they know we came down this way for a hunt. If we ain't back by tomorrow night, they'll send out a search party. And the search party wouldn't exactly be friendly."

Daryl said nothing in reply, just stared at Jack with icy eyes.

"Just let us do as we please for a night and then you'll never see us again," Jack shrugged. "And just know that if you try anything stupid, even if you succeed, you'll have a world of trouble comin' down on you."

With that, Jack flashed Daryl a menacing smile and went to join Kelly in the kitchen to decide what they would be eating that night. Daryl leaned against the wall and watched the men moving about the cabin, dread settling in his stomach. Even if he managed to kill these men in their sleep, it would only bring on more people from their camp. He wondered if just letting them do as they pleased, as Jack had suggested, would be best, but he worried that the longer the men spent in the cabin, the higher the chances were that Beth would be discovered. The thought made his chest tight with anxiety. He tried to take slow breaths to keep himself calm. The last thing he needed was to snap and end up getting himself killed as a result.

Jack and Kelly had brought some food in a pot over to the fire to heat, and Ethan was examining the bookshelf next to the fireplace. He picked up one of Beth's Jane Austen novels, which made Daryl's heart pound a little harder in his chest. Ethan arched a suspicious eyebrow at Daryl.

"This yours? You queer or somethin'?"

Daryl shook his head. "Was here when I found the place."

"That's a book for chicks right there," Ethan said. "Gotta admit, I was hopin' a chick would be livin' here. Been a while since I've gotten any."

The other two men hummed in agreement, and Daryl couldn't stop himself from sneering.

"Doubt you could ever find a woman willin' to have anything to do with you," he muttered, and Ethan laughed humorlessly.

"Never said she had to be willing. Sometimes it's even better when they ain't willing."

The menacing look in Ethan's eyes made Daryl's blood boil, and his fingers twitched on his crossbow, aching to put a bolt through the man's throat. Keeping himself from acting out was going to be harder than he thought.

* * *

Beth was incredibly stiff from standing perfectly still for so long behind the shower curtain. It felt like it had been hours, and judging from the darkness that had long since fallen outside, it probably had been. But despite the aches in her muscles, she wouldn't allow herself to relax. She could hear almost everything that was said out in the living area of the cabin, and she had to remain on her guard. The men were getting ready to bed down for the night, and Beth knew that if she and Daryl were ever going to get an opportunity to attack first, while the men were sleeping would be it. Unfortunately she heard the men discussing taking shifts keeping watch (apparently to keep an eye on Daryl rather than to watch for walkers), but with two out of the three men sleeping, maybe she and Daryl would still stand a chance.

She had heard one of the men telling Daryl that the rest of their camp would come looking for them if they did not return, but Beth didn't care. She didn't trust their reassurances that they would not harm Daryl if he cooperated. From the way the men had praised the cabin and its stash of supplies, Beth suspected that they would at the very least take everything she and Daryl had. Knowing Daryl's temper, he was likely to get himself killed if they tried. Or maybe they were just waiting for the right time to kill him—hoping he would fall asleep and leave himself vulnerable, perhaps—and Beth wasn't keen on finding out if that was the case. If an opportunity arose, Beth was going to take it, the rest of the men's camp be damned. Besides, they had said that their camp was ten miles away. With the cabin being a few miles off the main road, it was possible that the supposed "search party" one of the men had talked about would never even find them. It was a risk Beth was willing to take.

The cabin had grown silent, which meant that the men had finally laid down to rest. Beth allowed her muscles to relax slightly, but she kept her ears on alert for any sign of movement. For a long while, all she could hear was the crackling of the low fire in the living room. Suddenly she heard footsteps, and one of the men spoke up.

"Where do you think you're goin'?"

"Takin' a piss," Daryl's voice growled back impatiently.

Beth heard his footsteps growing closer, and she heard the click of the bathroom door closing behind him. The shower curtain was peeled back slightly, revealing Daryl's worried face illuminated in the soft moonlight that filtered in through the window. His eyes silently asked her if she was okay, and Beth nodded. She jerked her head toward the living room and mouthed out silently, _Are they sleeping?_

Daryl nodded. The look in his eyes told Beth that he was planning to do something about their situation as soon as he could. Beth reached out to him and cupped his cheek in her palm, reassuring him with her eyes. He nodded again and pulled away, making sure the shower curtain was back in place before flushing the toilet and making his way back out into the living room.

Time seemed to drag by as Beth waited, hoping for a sign of some sort that she could act. It felt like hours had passed by, and despite Beth's tense anxiety, she was exhausted. Her eyelids began to droop, and she had to fight to keep them open. The last thing she needed was to pass out standing up and cause a commotion by falling. She blinked hard and shook her head to try to wake herself up.

The sound of movement in the cabin suddenly perked her up. She heard a man's voice mutter something about the bathroom, and she tensed, knowing she would very soon be within feet of one of the intruders. Her hand went to the knife in her pocket, and she quickly drew the blade and flipped it open, holding it tightly in her hand.

She heard a man enter the small bathroom, the door clicking shut behind him. Though she could not see him through the curtain, she knew he was standing right in front of her as he stood over the toilet. He let out a groan as he relieved himself, and Beth slowly and silently peeled back the curtain. The man's back was to her and he stood only about two feet away. She placed her foot on the edge of the tub and slowly stepped up onto its edge, giving her a good six inches of height over the man in front of her. She waited until he flushed the toilet and used the sound of the toilet flushing as cover for her attack. Beth quickly reached her arm out and swiftly sliced her knife across the front of the man's neck.

The blade had cut through his skin like butter, and the man uttered a desperate gurgle as he fell onto his knees. Blood poured out of the gash in his neck, pooling in a large black puddle on the floor. The man flailed around and crashed loudly into the bathroom cabinet. His eyes landed on Beth standing over him with her blade in hand, and she watched the life leave them. She heard movement out in the living room and she quickly leaned over the dead men and plunged her knife into his skull, eliminating the possibility of him rising again.

"Kelly? What're you doin' in there, man? You fall or somethin'?" a man's voice came through the door.

Beth stepped over the body of the man apparently named Kelly and held her knife ready. She steadied herself and made sure not to slip in the large puddle of blood beneath her feet. The man outside the door knocked heavily.

"Kelly? You okay in there?"

When no reply came from Kelly, the man outside went to open the door. Beth watched the knob turning as if in slow motion. As the door swung open, she lunged at him.

"What the—"

Beth slammed her knife into the man's neck before he could react further. His mouth dropped open, gaping in shock, and his hands went to the hole in his neck that was now spurting blood. He reached for Beth, and she darted around him and tried to retreat out the open bathroom door. The man slipped and fell on his comrade's blood covering the floor. As Beth tried to back out of the small room, his hands seized her ankle, sending her tumbling to the floor, and tried to tug her back toward him. He was unable to speak, but the look in his eyes was enough to send a bolt of fear through her as she struggled to free herself from his grasp. She could hear the sounds of a struggle in the living room as the third man woke to discover what was happening, and Beth tried desperately to get away from the man clawing at her leg. One of his hands reached for the gun attached to his belt, and Beth took advantage of the looser grip on her legs to deliver a swift kick to his face. The man's grasp on her broke, and Beth scrambled to her feet. She hurriedly drove her blade down into the man's forehead before he could reach his weapon.

Beth rushed out into the living room and saw Daryl on top of the third intruder. Before she could make it over to the struggle, Daryl wrapped his arms around the man's neck and snapped it with a sickening crack. His gaze quickly darted to Beth, the panic in his eyes turning to relief as he saw she was unharmed. He stood and rushed toward her, Beth meeting him halfway and throwing her arms around him. His arms circled around her as well and held her so tightly that she could barely breathe.

"You okay?" he grunted, his voice sounding thick with emotion.

"Yeah," Beth breathed, relief seeping into her. "Slit the first one's throat and stabbed the second one in the neck. They're both dead."

Daryl nodded and pulled away slightly to look down at her. His eyes held a mixture of pride and concern, and Beth seemed to understand his worry.

"I had to do it, Daryl," she said firmly. "I know they said they weren't going to hurt you, but I didn't believe them. I couldn't risk them hurting you. I had to do it."

Daryl exhaled slowly, some of the tension leaving his body.

"You're an incredible woman, Beth Greene," he said, his voice low. "Here I was thinkin' I'd have to save you, but you went and saved both of us."

"I'm stronger than I look," Beth said, her lips curving into a small smile that felt somewhat foreign after the events that had just transpired.

"I know. Strongest girl I know," Daryl agreed. "And anyone who don't know that is a fool."


	25. Chapter 25

Beth and Daryl had hauled the three bodies outside and several hundred feet away from the cabin, using the light of the moon to guide them. They hadn't wanted to dump them close to their home, as the scent of the freshly killed bodies could attract walkers. After the bodies had been disposed of, the pair returned to the cabin, neither of them speaking. The fire still burned low in the fireplace, and the silence of the cabin felt almost oppressive after the events that had just transpired.

Beth stood in the doorway to the bathroom, staring down at the large pool of blood that covered the floor. Her expression was blank, but Daryl knew her mind was anything but. He went to stand behind her and she leaned into him. He wrapped his arms around her and she sighed.

"They weren't the first people I've killed," she said after a moment. "But the men in the car were different. My life was in immediate danger then. This time there was a chance that things would have been okay, but I acted anyway. I just couldn't take that risk."

"I'm glad you did somethin'," Daryl said quietly. "Wasn't sure if I'd have had a chance to."

"I don't regret doing it. But it feels different than it did the first time. Knowing that I didn't _have _to, but I did anyway . . . it makes me wonder what kind of person I've become."

"You're still a good person, Beth," Daryl said firmly. "Just 'cause you defended yourself and your home don't make you a bad person."

"I guess," Beth murmured softly. "I wish it didn't have to be like this. I hate what this world makes us do."

Daryl said nothing in reply, but tightened his embrace in reassurance. Both of them stood still, staring at the sticky mess of the bathroom floor and staying silent for several moments. After a while, Beth tore her eyes away from the floor and turned in Daryl's arms to face him.

"What now?" she asked.

Daryl knew she was asking whether they would stay at the cabin or leave. He studied her face, looking for any indication of how she was feeling about the matter and hating that they had to make such a choice.

"I think we need to go," he said, his voice laced with regret.

Beth nodded solemnly; she had been expecting this.

"The cabin isn't very close to the main road," she said. "The dirt road that leads here is barely even visible. And the camp these men talked about is ten miles away. There's a chance they'd never even find us."

"But there's also a chance that they will. We got out of it this time, but next time we might not be so lucky. It's too risky."

"Being out on the road is also risky," Beth pointed out. "It's still the dead of winter. We'd be out there without shelter exposed to the elements, and to the other dangers of life on the road. Might be that we run into people worse than those who just found us. Or get swarmed by a herd. Is staying here really more dangerous than life out there?"

Daryl sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair.

"You're right that leavin' here is dangerous. Especially with winter bein' in full force and all. But I'd feel safer if we could keep movin' rather than stayin' here like sitting ducks waitin' to be discovered. We survived out there last winter, and we can do it again. You and me make a good team. I know we could do it."

"I don't doubt that," Beth nodded. "I just want to make sure we go over both sides to this situation before making a decision."

"So what do you wanna do?" Daryl asked.

"I don't know," Beth answered honestly. "Part of me believes we should stay here, and even that we could set up something to defend ourselves if we're found. But the other part of me wants to put as much distance between us and that other camp as possible."

Daryl nodded, looking down at the woman who mattered more to him than any person ever had. The woman who _loved _him. His heart thumped as he remembered her words from just hours before. He had to do whatever he could to protect her. Even though she had clearly shown that she could protect both of them herself, staying put seemed like he was putting her in harm's way.

"You know where I stand," he said. "I think we gotta go."

Beth bit her lip, but slowly nodded in agreement. Her eyes were full of regret, and Daryl felt the same way. The cabin had been their home for over two months; they had started to build a life together in this place. The thought of leaving their little haven behind pained both of them, but it was necessary to increase the chances of their survival. Surviving was what was important.

"When?" Beth asked. "And where?"

"One of those guys said their group would come lookin' for 'em if they weren't back by tomorrow night. So we should probably leave tomorrow. Maybe by midday, if we can," Daryl replied. "I dunno where we should go. Their camp is north of here, so for starters, I say we head south."

Beth's expression grew thoughtful. "South is good," she said. "The farther south we go, the warmer it will be. Maybe we should head toward the coast. Having water on one side of us seems like it would be safer, and it would give a destination to head toward."

Daryl studied Beth with a bit of a frown on his face. "What about lookin' for our group?" he asked quietly. "If we head toward the coast, it's a lot less likely that we'll find 'em."

"I know. But it seems so unlikely that we'll find them anyway. And who knows, maybe they had the same thought. It's not impossible that they headed south as well, especially if they were without shelter for the winter."

"Guess that's true," Daryl nodded. "But what if we make it all the way to the coast and we don't run into 'em? You gonna be okay with that? Just lettin' them go?"

"I don't know," Beth answered softly. "But we have to have some sort of plan. I can't say right now whether I'll be okay with giving up on searching for them. Maybe I will, but I can't promise that. For now, let's just focus on putting distance between us and other camp. That's all I can really do right now."

"Okay," Daryl nodded. "That's more than enough." He stepped closer to her and drew her to his chest to embrace her once more. She wrapped her arms around his waist and closed her eyes, taking in his comforting scent.

"We should get some sleep," Daryl said, his chest rumbling against her cheek as he spoke. "Still a couple of hours left before dawn. Once the sun comes up, we'll start loading up the truck with whatever supplies we can take with us."

Beth looked up at him and gave him the faintest of smiles. She pulled away and took his hand, leading him toward the bedroom. They both climbed under the covers, and Beth sighed contentedly when Daryl's body curled around hers. She hated that this would be their last night in this bed, and she wanted to enjoy the final moments of it, but exhaustion overtook her, and she was soon pulled into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

All of their supplies were loaded into the truck. Most were in the bed of the truck covered with a tarp, but Beth had stored her books and clothing in the truck cab. They had taken all of their food, medical supplies, toiletries, bedding, and clothing. Everything they had acquired in the past few months was going with them. Beth wished they could just tow the entire cabin along behind the truck. Leaving their home behind was harder than she thought it would be.

She stood by the truck gazing at the cabin while Daryl did a final sweep to check for things they may have left behind. Both of them were tired, as they had only gotten a few hours of sleep. They had woken shortly after dawn to begin loading up their supplies. Beth wished they could have lingered in bed for longer, maybe spent some time being intimate, but neither were really in the mood for such. Besides, the sooner they left the cabin, the more distance they would be able to put in between themselves and the impending search party that would likely be sent out that evening. Every mile counted.

Daryl approached the truck after double-checking for forgotten supplies. Beth flashed him a smile, but it felt stiff. He stood beside her and joined her in gazing at the cabin for a final time. She slipped her hand into his and he gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"We'll find somethin' better," Daryl said. "We'll have a place to call our own again someday."

"Yeah. I hope so. There's just so many good memories here. We were only here for two months, but it feels like a lifetime."

"In this world, two months practically is a lifetime," Daryl muttered in reply.

Beth nodded in agreement, and the two of them spent several moments in silence, both saying internal goodbyes to their home. Beth sighed and lifted their intertwined hands to place a kiss on the back of Daryl's hand.

"We should get going. If we don't leave now, I'm afraid I'll change my mind about leaving at all."

Daryl placed a rough kiss on the side of her head and nodded, dropping her hand and moving to the driver's side of the truck. Both climbed into the vehicle and Daryl quickly started it. The engine roared to life in the quiet woods, and Beth watched the cabin in the side mirror as they began to drive away. When she could no longer see the cabin behind her, she sighed heavily and pulled out the map.

"Let's take 41 through Greenville," she said. "We can try to siphon some gas in town there, and then when we get to a town called Warm Springs, 41 branches off to the southeast. We should follow that, 'cause if we stay on this road past Warm Springs, it'll take us to Fort Benning."

Daryl hummed in agreement. They both knew Fort Benning had been overrun, so there was no sense in going toward the place. Their plan was to try to also avoid all major metropolitan areas. If they stuck to small county highways, they were also less likely to encounter large traffic snags. Daryl just hoped they would be able to siphon enough gas for their journey in whatever small towns they encountered along the way.

"You know," Beth said after a few minutes of silence. "If we head straight south all the way to the coast, we'll actually end up in Florida. How d'you feel about leaving the state of Georgia? It'll be a first for you."

Daryl glanced over at her and saw that she was smiling. He couldn't help smiling, too. She had remembered his admission that he had never been out of Georgia, something he had said to her so long ago. He gave a little shrug.

"I'm up for it if you are."

Beth's smile widened, and Daryl returned his eyes to the road.

"I'm still sad about leaving the cabin behind," Beth said, "but I'm glad we have a plan. It gives me something to look forward to, getting to our destination. Before the cabin, it felt like we were just wandering aimlessly, just surviving day to day. This time, we have a place we're heading. Even though we don't know what we'll find there, working toward something is making leaving here easier."

There it was: that positivity that Beth always managed to hold onto, even when things weren't going the way they had planned. Her hope and positivity were something Daryl adored most about her, and he was glad that despite the horrors she had experienced just hours before, she was still able to maintain that light inside of her. He reached over to her and took her hand in his, keeping his other hand on the steering wheel.

"Maybe it'll be paradise down in Florida," he said with a half smile. "We'll find a little house on stilts right on the beach."

"I might have to actually get a tan," Beth giggled, joining in on his fantasy.

Daryl scoffed. "Nah. I'll find you an umbrella to keep you outta the sun. Your skin is perfect the way it is."

Even though he wasn't looking at her, Daryl could tell Beth was smiling.

"Might have to find some tequila, too," he continued. "We'll find a way to drink margaritas on the beach."

"That sounds amazing," Beth grinned. "Although, we don't really have the best luck drinking together."

"Well, if you promise not to burn our house down, I promise not to make you shoot arrows at walkers. And I also promise that if you kiss me, I won't push you away. In fact, there'll be no escapin' me once the kissin' starts."

Beth gave a pure, uninhibited laugh, and Daryl was certain it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

* * *

**Side note: If you're looking for another good Bethyl story, I highly recommend that you check out "Home" by Mccorv3 if you haven't already. I'm **  
**Mccorv3's beta reader for that story, and as such, I have the privilege of reading ahead of what is currently published, and I can tell you that there is some awesome stuff coming up in that story that you won't want to miss! Go give it a read! :)  
**


	26. Chapter 26

**Please excuse me for a moment while I freak out about this story having over 200 followers. That's a big milestone for me. You guys rock! :)**

**Here's chapter 26. Enjoy!**

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Beth and Daryl made it about 80 miles south of the cabin before deciding to look for a place to spend the night. It was late afternoon, and although they could have continued on for some time, both were still quite tired from their lack of sleep the night before. The drive thus far had been uneventful; they had only hit two traffic snags that had caused them to backtrack and choose a different route, and they hadn't encountered any difficulties with walkers or people. Beth had proven to be a decent navigator, as she had guided them on a somewhat spider web-like route that stuck to county highways and only passed through tiny towns. They had stopped in two towns along the way, but only to siphon gas. Beth had wanted to search the local stores for supplies, but being within the city limits of the unfamiliar small towns had made Daryl nervous, and he had vetoed her desire to search for supplies beyond where they had stopped for gas. The truck's gas tank was currently about 2/3 full, and they had extra cans of gasoline stored in the bed of the truck for when they ran out. All in all, it had been a successful first day on the road thus far.

"We should probably stop soon," Beth said, glancing up at Daryl from the map in her lap. "We're getting close to Americus, which is bigger than most of the towns we drove through today. We should probably avoid it if we can."

Daryl nodded and kept his eyes on the road. "Keep your eyes peeled for a farmhouse or somethin'," he instructed. "If we're close to a town, I'd like to avoid campin' on the side of the road if possible."

They had barely driven another two miles before the very opportunity they were hoping for presented itself. Daryl slowed down at the sight of the long dirt driveway ahead. The mailbox at the juncture of the dirt driveway and the paved road indicated the presence of a house down the dirt road. He turned down the driveway, the truck kicking up plentiful dust behind them as they approached the farmhouse in the distance.

Beth readied her knife as Daryl pulled to a stop in front of the small white farmhouse. He grabbed his crossbow from the seat between them and arched his eyebrows at Beth, silently asking if she was ready. She gave a nod and they both exited the truck, eyes and ears on alert for any sounds of nearby threats. Everything was quiet outside the house, and Daryl's eyes scanned the horizon around them, thankfully seeing nothing heading their way.

He jerked his head toward the house and Beth followed behind him up the porch steps. Daryl banged loudly on the door and waited. After a few moments, two snarling bodies threw themselves against the door. Daryl raised his loaded crossbow and Beth reached for the doorknob, quickly pulling the door open and sending the trapped walkers sprawling out onto the porch. Daryl swiftly put an arrow through the skull of one walker, while Beth slid her blade into the forehead of the other. The pair cautiously entered the house and did a quick sweep of the ground floor. They found no other dead lurking inside, and Daryl began creeping up the stairs with Beth right behind him.

There were only two bedrooms, and they were able to quickly discern that both were vacant. Daryl opened one of the two other closed doors in the hallway, which revealed a linen closet that was stocked with towels, bedding, cleaning supplies, and spare toiletries. He made a mental note to come back for the supplies once they had finished clearing the house and went to open the last closed door.

He was hit with the overwhelming smell of decay and had to fight the urge to gag. The door led to a bathroom, and the bathtub held the remains of a corpse that had been decomposing for quite some time. It was impossible to tell whether the corpse had been male or female, but Daryl quickly discerned the cause of death. A knife rested on the edge of the tub, and the tub itself was stained a dark rust color, the remnants of the long-evaporated blood-saturated water that had once filled it. It had been a suicide, and from the looks of the situation, one that had happened in the early stages of the outbreak. Daryl glanced back at Beth behind him and noticed the look of horror and disgust on her face. He quickly shut the door again and backed away from it.

"We'll just stay downstairs," he muttered. Beth nodded quickly in agreement and turned to head back downstairs. Daryl noticed that her hand had gone to her wrist, her fingers rubbing along the scar that remained from her own suicide attempt. He reached out to her and gently grasped her arm, prompting her to stop her retreat and turn back to face him. Her expression was blank, but her eyes betrayed her. Daryl could tell that she was distraught over the memories of what had happened so long ago at the farm. Beth knew that Daryl could read her like a book, and she looked away, feeling ashamed.

"You ain't that girl anymore," he said firmly. She looked back up at him sharply and drew strength from the intensity in his eyes. "You're stronger than that now."

She nodded. "Wouldn't be here if I wasn't," she agreed, but her voice sounded weak to her ears. Daryl's fierce gaze didn't waver from her eyes.

"We both got scars," he murmured. "But we're stronger than the scars. They're from the past, and they don't matter anymore."

Beth drew in a shaky breath, feeling moved by his words. She stepped close to him and slipped her arms around his waist.

"You give me more strength than you'll ever know," she said. "With you, I can get through anything."

* * *

_There was so much blood. It covered every inch of the bathroom floor, and it was growing in volume. Beth couldn't tell where all the blood was coming from. It was rising up to her ankles, and she stumbled backwards in an attempt to get away from it. A figure suddenly rose from the pool of blood, and the source of the flood was revealed. The blood poured from the slit in the man's throat before her, causing the level of the blood to rise even more. Beth slipped in the sticky puddle and was suddenly immersed in the red fluid, her whole body going under._

_She thrashed about and tried desperately to get to the surface. She was drowning. A hand reached into the pool of blood and she grasped it frantically, drawing a huge, gasping breath as she was pulled out of the depths. Her entire body was covered in it, and she blinked the red stickiness out of her eyes. Her gaze traveled to the hand that had rescued her, only to see that the hand was decayed, the skin rotted away and revealing pieces of bone that was still wrapped tightly around her wrist. Beth screamed, but no sound came out. A sinister decomposing face emerged from the pool of blood, the look in its eyes so like the one her last victim had given her just a day before. Beth tried to scream again, begging for help, but once again, it was silent. The rotting face slipped back beneath the surface of the pool of blood, and the hand still attached to her arm began to drag her back under with it. Beth struggled against it, but she was too weak to fight it. She was sliding back under, and she tried desperately to scream again, but her voice once again failed her. She was screaming and screaming, but only silence came out._

"Beth! Beth, wake up!"

Daryl's voice was frantic, and Beth shot up from where she lay on the couch, gasping for breath. Her heart was racing and her cheeks were wet with tears, and as she laid eyes on Daryl hovering above her, she saw the horrified look in his eyes.

"Oh god, it was a dream . . ." Beth said hoarsely. Daryl pulled her to his chest and held her tightly.

"You were screamin' in your sleep."

"I . . . there was so much blood," she whispered. "I was drowning in it. And one of the men from last night . . . he grabbed me, but he was dead, and he was trying to drag me back into the blood with him . . ."

Daryl's hold tightened on her, and he rubbed slow circles on her back.

"Just a nightmare, Beth," he murmured, his voice rough. "Not real."

Beth nodded and stayed in his embrace for a few moments, allowing her heart rate and breathing to return to normal. When she no longer felt the lingering effects of the nightmare, she pulled away.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Just 'bout an hour."

Daryl had allowed Beth to sleep first, volunteering to take first watch. She wondered if his absence after becoming accustomed to sleeping next to him had prompted the nightmare. After what she had endured the night before, she wasn't surprised that she had been haunted by the ordeal without his comforting presence next to her. She sighed and sat up on the couch.

"I can't sleep without you next to me."

Daryl exhaled slowly. "I can't stay with you, Beth," he said regretfully. "It ain't safe like at the cabin . . . gotta keep watch. Gotta keep us safe."

"I know," Beth nodded. "Can you at least stay with me a little while?"

It reminded him of their first night together at the cabin. How Beth had wandered out onto the porch where he had been keeping watch, and told him she couldn't sleep because of the memories of her kidnapping replaying in her head. He remembered how he had agreed to stay with her until she fell asleep, and how heavily his heart had been pounding when she had first laid her head on his chest. He almost smiled at the memory.

"Course I will," he replied gruffly. "Got the perimeter alarms set up, so if anythin' wanders up here, I'll hear it."

Beth smiled, but it felt stiff. She patted the couch next to her, and Daryl didn't hesitate to oblige her. He lifted the pile of blankets that were covering her and laid down on his side, and Beth curled her back against him, both of them fitting together perfectly on the narrow couch. His arms circled around her protectively, and she sighed as she felt the comfort of his embrace.

She tried to close her eyes, but even as relaxed as Daryl's arms made her feel, sleep didn't come easy. Her adrenaline was still pumping from her dream, making her feel more alert than tired, regardless of how exhausted her body actually was. After several unsuccessful minutes of trying to fall back asleep, she huffed impatiently and turned around in Daryl's arms to face him. His intense eyes met hers, sending a shiver to her core.

Beth's soft lips found his, kissing him gently as if he were fragile and could break under the pressure of her lips. He tenderly returned the kiss and felt himself almost melting against her. His hands moved from her back to tangle themselves in her unruly blonde hair, and the kiss quickly started to become more heated. Her lips parted slightly, and she released a soft moan when Daryl's tongue tangled with hers. She pressed her lower body against his, and he groaned and withdrew his lips from hers.

"Beth . . . are you sure you wanna do this right now?"

"Yes," Beth replied somewhat breathlessly. "I want to feel good things, not fear or anxiety. I want you to make love to me."

It was all the reassurance Daryl needed. His lips fiercely claimed hers again, this time holding nothing back. His kiss was dominating and possessive, and it only increased the intense heat that was growing in the pit of Beth's stomach. He ran his teeth over her bottom lip and bit down slightly, eliciting another soft moan from her. Daryl repositioned himself so that he was on top of her, laying between her legs and grinding his growing erection against her. He reached between their bodies and unbuttoned Beth's pants, and she assisted him in shimmying them down her legs along with her underwear. She kicked them to the floor but left her shirt and sweater on due to the chill of the unheated house. When her hands went to unfasten Daryl's pants as well, he grabbed both of her wrists in one hand and stilled her.

Beth barely had time to shoot him a questioning look before he flashed her a quick smirk and scooted down the couch, his head disappearing beneath the blankets. She giggled, but her amusement was quickly stifled when she felt the first touch of his tongue to her center. She gasped and clutched the blankets tightly in her hands as Daryl's tongue tantalizingly traveled along the length of her slit before returning to her already swollen clit. She felt one of his warm hands on her abdomen, and his thumb pulled her hood up to expose more of her clit to his eager mouth. He swirled his tongue around it and Beth moaned breathlessly, squeezing her eyes shut to give herself over to the pleasure he was giving her. He varied the pressure and speed of his tongue; he knew just the right way to give her what she needed.

When Daryl felt her thighs beginning to twitch, he used his free hand to insert two fingers inside her. Beth cried out from the added pleasure, and he could tell she was quite close to the edge. He began flicking his tongue against her swollen nub ever so delicately, almost not even touching her, and he could tell from her labored breathing that his teasing was almost too much for her.

"Daryl, please . . ." Beth gasped.

He grinned against her and obliged, pressing his tongue harder against her and using his fingers to tug at the sensitive spot inside her. Beth released a shuddering moan as she came, her muscles clenching tightly around his fingers. He kept his tongue pressed firmly against her clit as she rode out her orgasm, jerking against him with each wave that passed through her. He crawled back up the couch so that he was positioned on top of her once more, grinning down at her triumphantly as he always did when he had managed to give her such mind-blowing pleasure.

Beth fisted her hands in his hair and pulled him down into a fierce kiss. Her tongue mingled with his and she moaned as she tasted herself on his tongue. Her hands quickly went to the button and zipper on his pants. Before she could tug them down, Daryl fished a condom out of his back pocket. Beth tugged his pants down his thighs while he tore open the condom and rolled it on. He slid into her without hesitation, loving how wet she was.

Beth hooked her ankles around his back and rose her hips to meet each of his slow, hard thrusts. Each time, he withdrew from her almost completely, pausing with just the tip of his cock inside, before slamming his length back into her. He repeatedly hit the sweet spot inside her, and the combination of intense pleasure and near pain soon had her nearing her peak for the second time. Daryl began to speed up, his thrusts still deep and hard, and it wasn't long before Beth's walls were clenching around him in another orgasm.

"Fuck, Beth," he grunted. He pumped himself into her a few more times before finding his own release. Panting, he tried not to collapse completely on top of her as the pair of them attempted to catch their breath. After a few moments, he withdrew from her and quickly removed the condom, tying it off and flinging it to the floor to deal with later. He rolled off of Beth and positioned himself on his side next to her, his back against the back of the couch. He slung his arm across her body and tugged her closer to him, earning a small giggle from Beth.

"That was exactly what I needed," she said, snuggling against him. "I think I'll be asleep in no time."

Daryl grunted a little in response and tried not to give in to the urge to close his own eyes.

"I'll stay here with you till you fall asleep," he said. "Then I gotta go back outside for watch."

"Mhm," Beth agreed sleepily. "Wake me in a few hours. You need sleep, too."

Daryl nodded and placed a kiss on the side of Beth's head. He felt content, and knowing Beth felt the same made it all the more enjoyable. He hoped the next day would be just as successful as their first day on the road had been. But Daryl knew that even if they ran into trouble, they would be able to get through it, just as they always had. They were a team, and a damn good one at that.

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**I know this may not have seemed like the time or place for smut, but I was having smut withdrawals, and I had my reasons for feeling smutty today (you know who you are!). Hope you enjoyed, and please review! :)**


	27. Chapter 27

**I apologize for the wait on this chapter! It's been a busy week. Enjoy! :)**

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Beth sighed and drummed her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel. She was bored. Daryl had given in to her request to drive about an hour ago, but so far, driving wasn't helping her situation. She wished that she could listen to music while they drove, as she always used to enjoy doing before the world had ended, but with no functioning radio stations left, that wasn't an option. The old truck didn't have a CD player, but it wasn't as though they had any CDs anyway. She had tried getting Daryl to play silly games with her earlier, but he was in a bit of a testy mood and had refused to partake.

His mood was justified, however, and Beth was actually surprised she wasn't as irritated as he was. Their second day of travel hadn't been nearly as smooth as their first. They had encountered three major traffic snags that morning, forcing them to alter their route and head farther east than they had planned. After seeming to drive in circles for most of the morning, they had finally found a clear route and were once again heading south. They were about thirty miles south of Macon, and while the city was well behind them, Beth could tell that Daryl was still a little on edge.

"Quit that," he grumbled suddenly next to her. She blinked in confusion before realizing he meant her fidgeting hands, and she sighed and ceased her drumming.

"I'm sorry. I'm just bored. I always used to take road trips with lots of music to listen to, and it's weird to drive for so long in silence."

Daryl grunted in reply, but as usual, Beth was unfazed by his lack of response.

"I would always spend the night before a road trip making a playlist for the drive," she continued. "And then I'd burn it onto discs to listen to on the road. It was one of my favorite parts of the road trip."

"Yeah, well this ain't a road trip," Daryl snapped. "Ain't no vacation or fun little trip wherever you used to go back then."

Beth gave him a glare and an impatient huff. "Yeah, I know that, Daryl. You don't have to be so snippy with me. It's not my fault we had to find another route."

Daryl sighed. "I know. Sorry."

He knew she was right; he shouldn't be taking out his frustration on her. He suddenly found himself thankful that Beth wasn't willing to put up with his attitude. Sometimes her low tolerance for his poor moods was what he needed to pull himself out of it. He sighed again and glanced over to her, feeling a little guilty for being so short with her all day.

"You could sing," he suggested. "Make your own music."

Beth shrugged. "Maybe."

She didn't really feel much like singing at the moment, despite her yearning for music on the drive. But she appreciated that Daryl appeared to be making an effort to not be so grouchy. She kept her eyes on the road and let her mind wander to fantasies of sitting on the beach with Daryl's arms around her, watching a sunset together.

Her fantasy was suddenly interrupted when her eyes landed on a particularly interesting billboard ahead. In large lettering, it read, "The Lion's Den Adult Store: 5 Miles Ahead." Beth smirked and stifled a giggle, and she glanced over at Daryl when she felt his eyes on her. He arched an eyebrow in confusion, and Beth could feel her cheeks blushing a bit.

"I've never been to a sex shop," she blurted out, and Daryl snorted.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, there's one up ahead. Five miles," she stated, glancing back and forth between Daryl and the road. His expression had turned into one of amusement.

"You sayin' we should go there?" he smirked at her.

"Why not?" Beth grinned. "I'm bored, you're grumpy, and it could be just the fun little activity we need to make today better."

Daryl exhaled a long breath, the amusement still plain on his face.

"We should really keep goin'," he said. "Put more distance between us and Macon."

"We will," Beth agreed. "But that doesn't mean we can't stop for a few minutes."

"I dunno," Daryl shook his head, but Beth could tell that he was just teasing her. She reached over and shoved him playfully.

"C'mon, Daryl," she giggled. "I watched my first porno with you, it's only right that you're the one to introduce me to my first sex shop."

Daryl chuckled at that. "All right, all right, we'll stop and check it out. But don't come cryin' to me when your innocent eyes are ruined forever by what we see in there."

Beth laughed. To be honest, she was excited by the idea of visiting the adult store. She had never been to one before (having been only 16 when the world had gone to hell), but it was an experience she didn't want to miss out on having. It wasn't so much the pornographic movies she was interested in, but Beth had never seen a sex toy in person before, and she was wildly curious as to what they actually looked like. Her cheeks flushed as she thought about it, and she tried to focus on the road, hoping that Daryl hadn't noticed her heated face.

Soon they were pulling off the highway and into the parking lot of The Lion's Den. The parking lot was completely vacant, and the area around them appeared to be quiet and still as Beth stopped the truck. She glanced at Daryl, who gave her a nod, and the pair of them exited the truck with their weapons drawn. They approached the front door of the store, which was made of a sort of frosted glass to hide the identities of potential shoppers. Beth smirked at the sign that said, "18+ ONLY. Have your ID ready!"

Daryl rapped on the glass loudly and waited, but nothing moved inside the store. He tried the door, but it was locked.

"Stand back," he grunted to Beth, before using the butt of his crossbow to smash a hole in the glass door. He carefully reached inside and unlocked it. He handed Beth a flashlight as he pulled the door open, propping it in place with a small wedge he found by the door.

"Dark in here," he explained. "Usually ain't windows in places like these."

"Ahh, so you've been to one of these places before, have you?" Beth grinned. Daryl rolled his eyes at her.

"Once or twice."

He entered the store first and clicked on his own flashlight. The store seemed quiet and deserted, but Daryl wasn't taking any chances. He carefully moved forward and quickly scanned the store, stopping briefly to bang on two doors in the back, which also remained silent.

"What're those?" Beth asked.

"Private movie rooms," Daryl grunted in reply. He smirked at Beth's look of disgust. "Well, we're here now, Miss Greene. Got anything in particular you're lookin' for?"

Beth's cheeks flushed again, and she was thankful for the darkness of the store.

"I just want to look. Not looking for anything in particular," she shrugged, but she knew Daryl was still smirking at her. She tried her best to ignore his smug expression and began tentatively exploring the store. The beam of her flashlight landed on a large display of pornographic movies and she approached the display, her mouth starting to hang open a little at the sight of the extremely explicit images on the covers. She heard Daryl come up behind her, his flashlight beam joining hers shining on the movies before them.

"See anything that strikes your fancy?" Daryl muttered lowly behind her. His voice held a teasing tone to it, but it still sent a shiver down her spine.

"No, but—" Beth suddenly cut herself off and let out a loud laugh. She picked up one of the movies and held it up to Daryl. "_Edward Penishands_?! Is this for real?"

Daryl laughed and shook his head in disbelief. "You'd be surprised how many porno spoofs there are out there."

"I almost wish I could watch this," Beth grinned, flipping the DVD case over and looking at the back of it.

Daryl leaned forward and began scanning the selection of DVDs. After a moment, he snorted and pulled one from the shelf.

"Here's another spoof. _Good Will Humping_."

Beth snickered and put down _Edward Penishands _to keep looking.

"Look! _Gulp Fiction_?" she laughed, pulling it from the shelf. "Oh, ew," she said as she looked at the images on the back. Daryl chuckled at her reaction.

It certainly wasn't a typical activity for Beth (or for Daryl, for that matter), but it seemed to be exactly what they had needed. Laughing over the ridiculous porn titles had considerably lightened both of their moods. The laughter was refreshing, and something Beth needed after the recent less-than-happy events that had occurred in their lives.

After she had gotten her fill of browsing the movies, Beth began wandering through the rest of the store. She found a small display of books that she was immediately drawn to, and as she began flipping through them, she realized they were erotic novels. _Very_ erotic novels. She grinned and grabbed a few to take with her. The Anne Rice novels she had been reading had contained some steamy love scenes, and Beth had to admit that she had liked reading them. She wasn't sure if she would enjoy the erotica she had just picked up, but in their world, entertainment was limited, and she would take what she could get.

"Maybe you can read some of those books aloud while we drive," Daryl suggested playfully. "It'll be like books on tape."

"I think if I read any of this aloud, we would be pulling over too often," Beth smirked. "It's a little too hot for casual driving."

"Not sure that's a bad thing," Daryl murmured, his tone causing Beth to throb between her legs.

"Oh, stop," Beth shook her head, trying to ignore the heat in the pit of her stomach.

She wandered over to the section of the store she had been most interested to see: the sex toys. She couldn't stop her mouth from dropping at the selection in front of her. She couldn't believe the size of some of them; it seemed impossible that they would fit inside _anyone._ She skipped over the selection of dildos and turned her attention to the vibrators. She felt Daryl come up behind her and felt the heat rising to her cheeks just from looking at them.

"Maggie offered to buy me a vibrator once," she said, her voice strangely breathless. "For my sixteenth birthday."

"And did she?"

Beth shook her head. "I told her not to. I was curious, and I secretly wanted one, but I was too embarrassed to admit it. And I was afraid that if I had one, my parents would find it. The whole idea was just a little mortifying for me."

"I think it still is," Daryl teased her in a low voice. "I can see you blushing even in the dark."

Beth groaned and lifted her hands to her warm cheeks.

"I'm such a prude," she sighed a little dramatically. Daryl chuckled.

"Bein' inexperienced with somethin' does _not_ make you a prude," he disagreed. "Besides, you've proven to me many times that you are far from prude."

Beth turned around in mock anger. "Are you calling me promiscuous, Mr. Dixon?"

He snorted. "Not at all. But you know what you like, and sometimes, you don't mind gettin' a little dirty."

Beth gave him a half smile and bit her lip. His words and tone of voice were definitely turning her on, but despite the merchandise around them, it was neither the time nor the place to get frisky.

"I only know what I like 'cause you showed me," she said, and Daryl's eyes flashed with a mixture of pride and desire. She gave him a playful nudge and turned back around to look at the toys again.

"You should take a couple of 'em," Daryl suggested. "They could be fun . . ."

"I think _you're_ the one who's dirty," Beth smirked.

"Maybe. But you could also use 'em on those long, lonely hours while I'm keepin' watch . . ."

"Daryl!"

He laughed. "I'm just messin' with you. But seriously, you should take some. You said you were curious and wanted to try it, so why not? And I'll only participate if you ask me to."

Beth giggled and gave him another playful shove.

"I have no idea what to even look for. They all look so different."

"So get one of each type. And then if one breaks, you've got backups."

Beth eyed the selection in front of her and decided that Daryl had a point. And she shouldn't feel embarrassed for wanting to try new things. Especially something like this. She was a grown woman and she decided that she shouldn't feel ashamed of wanting to explore her own sexuality. Resolutely, she grabbed several different types of vibrators from the shelves.

"Atta girl," Daryl said with a chuckle. "Now let's go grab some batteries for those things. They've got a display of 'em up front."

"Might as well take them all," Beth shrugged. "We can use batteries for lots of things."

Daryl nodded and made his way over to the display. He leaned behind the counter and grabbed several plastic bags. He handed a few to Beth, where she quickly stashed her merchandise, and they quickly cleared out the store's selection of batteries. The pair of them left the store with full bags.

"See, wasn't this a good idea?" Beth grinned as she climbed back in the truck, this time letting Daryl back behind the wheel.

"Yeah," he agreed, a grin on his face. "But it'll be an even better idea once you make use of your new toys."

"Daryl!" Beth huffed, but she couldn't wipe the smile from her face as he laughed heartily next to her. Regardless of the troubles they'd experienced earlier, it had once again turned out to be a good day.

* * *

**Don't worry, dear readers, I will give you a scene involving Beth's new toys soon! ;) **

**Hope you enjoyed and please review!**


	28. Chapter 28

**I am so sorry for the delay on this chapter. I was very sick last week, but I'm feeling much better now. I hope the smutty end to this chapter makes up for the wait. :)**

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It was close to sunset by the time they found the old motel. They had started worrying that they would have to spend the night camping off the side of the highway, and both felt relief wash over them when the rundown motel came into view. Daryl pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine, his eyes traveling over the scene around them. There was an old gas station with only two pumps out front, and it appeared that the gas station interior and the motel office were one in the same. To the left of the motel was a separate building with a sign that read "Woody's Gentlemen's Club." The club's proximity to the motel led Daryl to believe that its dancers had done more than just strip during its time of operation, but none of that mattered now. Regardless of what had transpired in these walls, they were walls all the same.

"A porn shop and a strip club all in one day," he shook his head. "More than you bargained for?"

Beth giggled and nudged him playfully.

"C'mon. Let's clear the place out."

Daryl nodded in agreement, and both readied their weapons and exited the truck. They cleared the gas station and motel office first, thankfully finding it both void of walkers and with some food still on the shelves for the taking. Beth hopped behind the counter and retrieved the keys for the motel rooms, stating that it would be easier than kicking all the doors in and would enable them to make use of the locks on the doors. There were only eight rooms, and it didn't take them long to clear them. Only two of the rooms contained walkers, and they had been easily dealt with.

"I don't think we really need to clear the strip joint, but I'd like to go knock on the door, just to see if any walkers are inside," Daryl said. "If there's a bunch of 'em in there, I'd like to know."

"Good idea," Beth agreed. "I don't want any surprises. I'll start loading the truck with all the food from the gas station while you do that."

She watched him for a moment as he walked away, admiring how broad his shoulders looked even underneath his leather coat. With a slight grin on her face, she went to work looting the gas station what whatever she could find. Her grin widened when she discovered several boxes of condoms on the shelves; although their supply was not low, she would never pass up the opportunity to acquire more. As she shoved the boxes into her bag, she thought of the sex toys stashed in the truck. A motel next to a strip club seemed like such a dirty place to try them out, but at the same time, it was almost sort of perfect. Beth felt her cheeks warming from the thought, and she bit her lip in anticipation. Daryl had said he wouldn't participate if she didn't want him to, but she was pretty sure she did want him involved. He had managed to show her so much about her own sexuality already, so why not this, too?

"Club's pretty much clear," Daryl's voice suddenly came through the gas station, making Beth jump. She had been caught up in her own thoughts and hadn't heard him come in. She hurriedly resumed stuffing her bags with food until the shelves in front of her were clear.

"Were there many in there that you can hear?" she asked.

"Eh, sounded like maybe two or three. Door's locked tight though. They ain't gettin' out, and if they do, we can handle 'em easy."

"Good," Beth flashed him a smile and held up her full bags. "How do you feel about Cheetos and jerky for dinner?"

Daryl snorted and shook his head. "We probably should save our other food, so yeah, that works. If we manage to find someplace safer in the next few days, I should go huntin'. We could use some fresh meat."

"Why not here?" Beth shrugged. "Walls and doors with locks seems safe enough to me."

Daryl shook his head. "Nah. If I go huntin', you'll need to stay behind to watch the truck and our supplies. I ain't leavin' it unattended. And there's nothin' 'round here for miles, so anyone else travelin' on that highway will see what we saw: a temporary safe haven. Until we can find someplace that ain't right off the road, I ain't leavin' you."

"Okay," Beth smiled. "That makes sense."

She handed Daryl one of the full bags and the pair went back to the truck to stash their new loot away. Beth retrieved a few bags of chips and jerky from the loot and grabbed her bag of overnight toiletries to take in with her. Daryl snagged one of their battery-powered lanterns as well.

"So which room do you want to stay in? Were any of them cleaner than the others? I can't remember," she asked, dangling the keys in her hand.

"Well, rooms 2 and 7 had walkers, so not those. How 'bout room 4? Truck's parked right out front of it."

Beth nodded and went to open the door, revealing their home for the night. None of the rooms in the motel had been redecorated since the 70s, and Beth wasn't sure she trusted the cleanliness of the sheets enough to sleep under the covers, but it was a bed, walls, roof, and a door, which was more than enough. She grabbed the lantern and switched it on to take into the bathroom. It was small and cramped, but Beth let out a surprised squeal when water came out of the tap as she tested the knobs.

"Running water!" she grinned. Daryl appeared in the doorway and shared her smile. "I know it's only been two days since I've showered, but I'm going to take advantage of this water to shower again tonight. You should consider doing the same."

Daryl scoffed at her and Beth rolled her eyes. Daryl always seemed to prefer being dirty. Regardless of whether Daryl decided to bathe, however, Beth was in a good mood.

* * *

Beth could hardly believe it. The motel still had hot running water. It was a luxury she didn't think she would ever experience again after the farm. After the pair of them had eaten, she had taken her time in the shower, letting the steaming water spill over her until it began to run cold. Only when the warmth had completely vanished did she finally turn off the water and climb out.

She wrapped herself in a towel and quickly ran a brush through her wet hair. After brushing her teeth, she gathered up her clothes and grabbed the lantern from the counter before heading back out into the bedroom. The room was empty and the door was closed, but Beth knew that Daryl was just outside the door keeping watch. She sat down on the bed and rummaged in her bag of toiletries, pulling out what she was looking for. When she had gone out to the truck to retrieve her shower supplies, she had also snagged two of the vibrators she had acquired earlier in the day, and now she was looking at them in detail for the first time.

One was simple and white, and was cylindrical with a rounded tip. According to the packaging, it was meant for both internal and external stimulation. Beth could feel her cheeks flushing as she read over the package, even though she was alone. She reached for the other one: a smaller, wand-like device that was blue and sparkly. This one was just meant to be used externally, and it seemed less formidable to her. Resolutely, she went to work on the packaging on the blue vibrator, and soon held it in her hand. She turned it over in her grasp, examining it. Suddenly the door opened and Beth jumped, her eyes meeting Daryl's and her blush intensifying immediately.

His gaze traveled to what she held in her hand, and a smirk spread across his lips.

"Whatcha got there?" he asked innocently.

Beth shrugged a little, unsure of what to do. She laughed softly to herself.

"It seems sorta cliché to be trying this thing in a trashy motel room next to a strip club," she said.

"Nah," Daryl shook his head. "I got a feelin' that people didn't come here to get off alone . . . if you catch my drift."

Beth laughed nervously, feeling as though her cheeks were warm enough to heat the room.

"Gosh, I don't even know why I'm embarrassed to want to use this."

"What d'you have to be embarrassed about?" Daryl asked, his expression turning serious. "It's just you and me. Or, I could go back outside and leave you alone, if you want . . ."

"No," Beth shook her head. Suddenly, an idea dawned on her, and she smiled a bit. "Actually . . . I was thinking we could, you know, watch each other."

Daryl frowned a little in confusion, and Beth had to force the embarrassment out of her voice.

"Maybe if I watch you, um, pleasure yourself, it would make me less nervous to do the same with this?" she asked tentatively, holding up the small blue vibrator in her hand.

Daryl looked at her thoughtfully. "Never done that in front of anyone before."

"Well, me neither. So that makes it easier for me," Beth smiled. "Like you said, it's just you and me."

Daryl's lips slowly turned up into a half-smile.

"Okay," he said simply.

Beth's heart began to pound a little, but she forced herself to push aside her anxiety about the situation. This was Daryl, and as he had told her before, she had nothing to be ashamed of in front of him. She set the vibrator down on the bed and crawled toward him, raising herself to her knees to be level with where he stood at the edge of the bed. In one swift motion, she untucked the towel from her body and let it fall to the bed, leaving her completely naked before him. The look in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. His hands moved to cup her face, and the pads of his thumbs caressed her cheeks softly in a moment of gentleness before he suddenly buried one of his hands in her hair and gave it a sharp tug. Beth gasped as she was forced to look up at him, the motion causing her to throb between her legs. Daryl's mouth claimed hers, his kiss deep and demanding. She opened her mouth to him and moaned into the kiss as their tongues fought for dominance. Daryl's hands left her hair and slid down her smooth body. He palmed her ass in his hands and squeezed possessively, causing Beth to moan into the kiss again.

Beth's hands quickly went to Daryl's belt. She unbuckled it and pulled it from his hips with a soft swish, tossing it to the floor. She unfastened his pants and tugged them down a bit to reveal his mostly-erect cock. She gripped him in her right hand and slowly pumped him, feeling him harden completely in her hand. She grinned against his lips and pulled away. As she scooted back on the bed toward the pillows, Daryl glanced behind him and tugged an armchair closer to the bed. Beth propped herself up against the pillows and Daryl sank into the chair. His wrapped his right hand around his cock and began to slowly pump it up and down.

The sight of Daryl touching himself made Beth feel hot all over, despite the chill of the room. She let her thighs fall open, and the predatory look that came to Daryl's eyes upon the sight of her exposed glistening center made her shiver in anticipation. She reached next to her and picked up the blue vibrator, turning the knob at the end to spring it to life. She turned the vibrations to a medium speed and took a deep breath before gingerly touching the tip of the wand to her clit. She jerked and gasped the instant the vibrations touched her.

"Oh!" Beth gasped in surprise. She hadn't expected it to feel so intense. Daryl smirked at her, his eyes dark, and she bit her lip and pressed the vibrator to her clit again. Pleasure surged through her center; it was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She kept the vibrator against her clit as she focused on the sight of Daryl's large hand wrapped around his shaft. Beth felt as though nothing had ever turned her on more. She began to move the tip of the vibrator around in small, light circles, varying the pressure and intensity. She could feel how wet she already was; it was dripping down between her open legs. Her mouth fell open, her breathing already labored, as she watched Daryl's thumb gather a bead of precum from the tip of his cock and slide it over the head. It was enough to bring her orgasm crashing over her, quicker than it had ever come before. She let loose a few breathy moans as she reached her climax, and she quickly tossed the vibrator aside, its vibrations too intense, and pressed down hard on her clit as she rode out her orgasm.

Beth didn't remember closing her eyes, but when her climax had subsided, her lids fluttered open again to the sight of Daryl's hungry stare, his hand still pumping his cock. Her body still slightly humming, Beth licked her lips, her body aching with want for the man in front of her, despite the orgasm she had just experienced.

"Please fuck me, Daryl," Beth pleaded, her voice sounding husky and rougher than it usually was.

Daryl didn't need to be told twice. He rose from the chair and knelt on the bed, crawling toward her like a predator stalking its prey. He roughly grasped her by the hips and tugged her toward him before quickly flipping her onto her stomach. His calloused hands ran down her body, and Beth arched her back up in a silent plea for him to ravage her. He pulled her up onto her knees, and Beth propped herself on her elbows as he lined himself up with her entrance.

He was inside her with one swift thrust, both of them releasing animalistic groans at the feeling. He pulled out almost to the tip before roughly thrusting back inside with a wet slap. Beth was unable to contain her moans each time he bottomed out inside her. His hand fumbled next to them on the bed, locating the vibrator after a few moments. He turned down the knob to a low vibration and reached the toy around to press it to her center. Beth jerked as it touched her still-sensitive clit, but Daryl held it firmly against her as he continued to pump into her from behind. Beth lowered her front half to the bed to enable him to go deeper. The combination of the vibrator along with the mixture of pain and pleasure Daryl was giving her was rendering her senseless. His free hand palmed one of her ass cheeks, squeezing and pulling possessively. Beth was in ecstasy, and it didn't take long for a second orgasm to rake through her. She could hardly hear herself calling out Daryl's name over and over as her muscles tightened around him. He thrust into her a few more times before pulling out and finishing on her backside.

Beth literally collapsed onto her stomach, her ears ringing. Daryl switched off the vibrator and grabbed Beth's discarded bath towel to clean his seed from her skin before falling to the bed next to her. Both of them were panting for breath. After a few moments, she felt Daryl shift on the bed to turn toward her.

"So?" he said, his voice sounding rough. "What's your verdict on the vibrator?"

"Oh my fucking god," Beth said with a giggle as she turned to face him. "Where have these things been all my life?!"

Daryl chuckled and tugged her body into his, his arms circling around her and nuzzling his face into her hair.

"Good call on stopping at that shop today then," he said. "And also, watching you use it on yourself was one of the sexiest things I've ever seen."

"I'm glad you approve," Beth grinned. "I have a feeling we'll be having lots of fun with my new toys."

"Girl, you just let me know any time you want to play. With or without my participation."

Beth giggled and snuggled further into his arms, the post-coital satisfaction making her feel sleepy. She knew Daryl would soon have to return to watch outside, but she wanted to enjoy their remaining moments together. She felt very thankful that they had had another good day on the road.

"Wake me up in a few hours for my watch?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Mhm," Daryl agreed, his voice rumbling in his chest against her ear.

Beth sighed contentedly, and soon sleep took hold of her.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**

**Also, side note, I finally decided to start using my Tumblr. There's a link on my profile page if you wish to follow me. **


	29. Chapter 29

**Once again, I apologize for the wait. This chapter is somewhat of a filler chapter, but be warned, there is serious conflict coming up in the next chapter (HUGE thanks to Mccorv3 for talking out the details with me!). Enjoy and please review!**

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Daryl literally groaned aloud when the hot water from the showerhead hit his skin. He closed his eyes and leaned into the steady stream of water, only half-seriously considering trying to make the motel their official home if only to have access to the luxury of hot water for more than just today. He hadn't planned on showering, but when Beth had mentioned that the motel's hot water heater was apparently still functioning, it was an opportunity even he couldn't pass up.

Daryl had woken at dawn, and despite the few hours he'd slept since his watch had ended, he had felt surprisingly rested. After opening the door to peek at Beth on her watch outside, he had shuffled into the bathroom to take advantage of the hot water. He had forgotten how good a hot shower felt, and he could feel the built up tension starting to ease out of his muscles.

Suddenly he heard the sound of the curtain sliding back a bit, and he grinned as two slender arms wrapped themselves around his middle from behind. Beth pressed her naked body against him and he covered her arms with his own, holding onto her embrace. After a few moments, he turned around in her arms to face her, the water now cascading down his back. She smiled up at him, looking tired but also content. Daryl raised his hands to cup her face and brought his lips to hers. She seemed to melt into him, and she moaned softly when his tongue entered her mouth. The sound woke the hunger in him, a feeling Beth seemed to be able to provoke with the flip of a switch. She pressed her body against his, and he slid his hands down her body to cup her ass, giving each cheek a firm and possessive squeeze.

Daryl hoisted Beth up, her legs immediately wrapping around his waist as he did so. He backed her against the shower wall and pinned her there with his hips before trailing rough kisses along her neck. She moaned and rolled her hips, grinding herself against him. Daryl attempted to raise her higher, intending to impale her on his cock, but he quickly felt his foot sliding against the wet porcelain of the tub. Before he could gain his balance, he slipped forward, losing his grip on Beth in the process. She gave a surprised yelp as the pair of them tumbled to the floor of the tub in a tangled wet heap.

"Shit, you okay?" he asked gruffly, rubbing his elbow where he had hit it against the tub.

Beth looked at him with wide eyes before suddenly bursting into giggles. Daryl scowled at her, but it only made her laugh harder. The corners of his mouth twitched, and a small chuckle soon fell from his lips before he could stifle it.

"Now I see firsthand why Maggie always said shower sex is impractical," Beth said between laughs.

Daryl snorted. "Never tried it till now. If this even counts as trying it. I think Maggie's probably right."

Beth shook her head, her face still lit up with amusement. Daryl sighed, still grinning himself, and stood from the floor of the tub. He offered a hand to Beth and pulled her to her feet when she took it.

"Maybe we should just stick to washing," Beth suggested. Daryl nodded.

"Yeah. But later, we're picking up where we left off."

Beth flashed him an impish smile.

"Absolutely."

* * *

The breeze from the open window tousled Daryl's hair as they drove down the small county highway. Next to him in the passenger seat, Beth leaned against the side of the truck drifting in and out of sleep. She was tired, and it showed on her face, but Daryl still found himself blown away by her beauty. It shone from her both inside and out, and the fact that she was just as pure and wonderful on the inside made her even more gorgeous to him. Maybe it was the few good days they'd had on the road so far that were making him feel sentimental, but Daryl couldn't help noticing how strong his feelings for Beth had become.

He had spent weeks wondering if what he felt for Beth was love. And after she had told him that she loved him, he had questioned his feelings even further. But now, he knew he was in love with Beth. He had known for a while, but he hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. It wasn't that he felt that being in love with Beth was wrong, it was that actually admitting that he was in love with her terrified him. Beth was the first woman Daryl had ever loved, and his defensive tendencies made him feel that his love for her was a vulnerability. All his life, he had kept people at arm's length, never letting them get close enough to be able to hurt him. Now, Beth had all the power. She had the power to hurt him, and even worse, this love for her had the potential to destroy him if she was ever taken away from him again.

Daryl's grip on the steering wheel tightened as he remembered Rick's grief over the loss of Lori. He didn't want to think about what losing Beth would do to him. Loving someone in today's world was a dangerous thing. But regardless of whether Daryl chose to acknowledge it, it was there, and it wasn't going anywhere.

He knew he should tell her how he felt. Not only did Beth deserve to hear it, but he actually wanted to tell her. He had never in his life told another person that he loved them, and now that he found himself in a position to do so, it was a thrill, albeit a terrifying one. But he had no idea how to tell her. It seemed like a simple enough task, but actually getting himself to say the words was no easy feat. Daryl wasn't good at talking about his feelings, especially something as new and unknown as this. He sighed a little to himself and vowed to find a time to tell her soon.

Suddenly a loud bang from the right front wheel pulled Daryl out of his thoughts. Beth jerked awake from the sound, and Daryl gripped the steering wheel hard to keep the truck steady. He gradually eased his foot off the gas and the truck began to slow down, the right front wheel thudding loudly. When the truck finally slowed to a stop, he put it in park and turned to look at Beth, who had a hand pressed over her heart.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked breathlessly.

"Tire blew out," Daryl muttered.

"Oh no," Beth groaned. "Now what do we do? Everything we own is in this truck! We can't just leave it behind."

"There's a spare and a jack in the truck bed," Daryl replied. "Sucks, but it ain't the end of the world."

Beth arched an eyebrow at him and Daryl smirked a little.

"Okay, it is the end of the world, but it ain't the end of this truck. C'mon, I'll need you to look out for walkers while I get the spare on."

"Thank goodness you know what you're doing," Beth sighed as the two of them exited the truck.

"You never changed a tire before?"

"I barely even drove before the world ended. I was sixteen when it all started," Beth pointed out.

"Well, you're gonna learn now."

Beth followed Daryl to the back of the truck. She kept her eyes on their surroundings as he pulled back the tarp covering their belongings and began rummaging around for what he needed. Two walkers were shuffling toward the truck from the edge of the trees that bordered the road, drawn by the noise of the tire blow out. Beth met Daryl's eyes and gave him a nod, pulling her pink hammer from her belt loop and heading toward the dead. Daryl went back to retrieving the spare and the jack from the truck, his eyes flitting between Beth and the task at hand.

She swung the hammer into the forehead of the first walker and kicked the second one back to give her a moment to wrench the hammer free. The bloodied hammer made contact with the side of the other walker's head seconds later, sending it crumpling to the ground next to the first. Beth wiped the hammer clean on one of the downed walker's shirts before walking back to the truck with a nonchalant expression on her face. Daryl felt his lips twitching into a half smile at the sight; he couldn't believe that at one time, most people had thought Beth to be weak. She was clearly anything but, and he loved the strong woman she had become.

Beth watched as Daryl showed her how to change the tire, her gaze moving between the instruction before her and their surroundings to make sure no biters snuck up on them. The task didn't take long, and soon the spare tire was in place and the pair were climbing back in the truck. Daryl made a mental note to try to find a gas station with a functioning air dispenser so that he could make sure the rest of the tires were properly inflated. The last thing they needed was another blow out, as the only spare was now in use.

They continued driving for a few hours without incident until Daryl saw a sign up ahead that prompted him to slow down and squint at the text on it. It read, "Lee's Hot Rods &amp; Classic Car Restoration: 2 miles" with an arrow pointing down a side road. He turned down the road the arrow was pointing at.

"Where are we going?" Beth asked.

"Saw a sign for a garage for hot rods and such down this road. The spare we're rollin' on is pretty old, so it might not last long. They're bound to have some tires and maybe even spare engine parts we could use in the future. This truck's old, it ain't gonna function perfectly forever. Best stock up on mechanical supplies while we can."

Beth nodded in agreement, and soon they were pulling into the parking lot of a large tin building with several garage doors lining one side of the building. The area around them appeared to be deserted. They climbed out of the truck with their weapons ready and approached the building. Daryl peered into the windows on one of the garage doors and whistled.

"Some good lookin' cars in there," he said. "Almost a shame to be lootin' 'em for parts."

Beth grinned and peered in as well, her smile growing wider at the sight of the classic cars inside. Daryl went to the door that led to the office of the garage, but found it locked.

"Mind if I borrow your pretty pink hammer?" he asked, and Beth handed it over with a smile. She stood back as he used the hammer to smash the glass of the office door window and reached inside to unlock it. Daryl handed the hammer back to her as he opened the door and ushered her inside.

A large window in the office looked out into the garage, which appeared to be void of walkers. Even with the garage only illuminated by the light spilling in through the windows, the classic cars looked shiny and beautiful. Daryl opened the door to the garage with Beth following.

"They're amazing," she breathed as she looked around at the vintage cars. "I like knowing that they still exist here undisturbed. It's like a piece of history."

"It is," Daryl agreed. "I'll see if there's any parts we can use."

He moved around the garage collecting parts while Beth studied the classic cars in awe. He was able to find a few tires that seemed to be the correct size, and several engine parts he was sure the truck would need at some point. He piled the loot by the door.

"Daryl," Beth's voice called to him softly from across the garage. "Come look at this."

He made his way over to her to find her standing in front of a vintage trailer with a smile on her face. A large "For Sale" sign was leaning against it.

"1966 Aristocrat LoLiner ST," Daryl read from the sign. "$10,500. Damn. That's a hefty chunk of change."

"Yeah, but look what else the sign says. '12V solar-powered battery. Propane gas stove and water heater. Electric water pump.' That's why it's so expensive. It was upgraded to run on solar power, aside from the stove and water heater."

Daryl stared at the trailer, the wheels turning in his mind as he realized what Beth was getting at.

"Daryl, do you think we could tow this behind the truck? I don't know much about cars, but it seems like it just attaches to a regular trailer hitch. If we could take this, we'd have a roof over our heads no matter where we are, plus the opportunity to have solar-powered electricity if we need it. It seems like a jackpot to me."

Daryl hummed in agreement, circling around to where the trailer would be hooked up to a trailer hitch. It wasn't anything special, and he was sure it would attach to their truck just fine. He looked to Beth and grinned widely.

"Jackpot is right," he said, and Beth gave a little squeal of glee.

"Let's look at the inside!" she exclaimed, hurrying to the door of the trailer and pulling it open.

She stepped inside and gasped in delight, and Daryl followed behind her. He chuckled a little at Beth's expression of pure joy and shook his head at the inside of the trailer. He felt like he had been transported back in time to a 1960s housewife's dream. The trailer was decorated in a baby pink and blue color scheme. The floor beneath his feet was light pink, and the small kitchenette in front of them was equipped with a baby blue propane stove with a matching mini refrigerator, a tiny sink, and a small counter where a pink dish dry rack sat. The white kitchen table opposite the kitchenette was framed by pink bench seats, and small white curtains with pink polka dots lined the windows. On the other side of the trailer, a white bench seat looked like it pulled out into a twin bed, and behind it, there was a very tiny bathroom with a small toilet and a showerhead that was attached to the wall. Throughout the trailer were white cabinets that allowed ample storage space. It was like a miniature 1960s home.

"Can you believe this?" Beth gushed. "This is so charming! It's perfect!"

Daryl chuckled and shook his head. "I can't believe I'm gonna be livin' in this thing. Ain't exactly my style."

Beth gave him a playful shove as she beamed at him.

"I think it's adorable. It already feels like home."

"Don't get too attached already," Daryl said. "Still gotta make sure the truck is able to haul it. I wouldn't go movin' your stuff in just yet."

Beth just shrugged, seemingly not worried. And Daryl couldn't help noticing how suited she was for the little trailer. Beth was everything that was bright, good, and sweet, and she deserved a home that matched her personality and goodness.

"C'mon," he said, jerking his head toward the trailer door. "Gotta open one of these garage doors to back the truck in so I can hitch up the trailer. Also gotta load up all the supplies we got. Why don't you see if you can find extra propane tanks or batteries? This one takes a 12 volt, so make sure it's the right kind."

Beth beamed at him and suddenly threw her arms around him. Daryl let out a surprised chuckle and returned her embrace. She pulled back slightly and stood on her toes to press a kiss to his lips, which he gladly returned. He felt his heart do flip flops as she pulled away, pure happiness shining in her blue eyes.

"This is quite possibly the best thing we could have found," she said. "Now, no matter where we end up or where we go, we get to take home with us."

Daryl smiled softly down at the woman he loved. She was right, and it made him swell to think that she had been the one to truly teach him the meaning of "home."

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**The trailer I described was inspired by a real trailer. If you want to see pictures of this adorable 1960s beauty, go to my Tumblr page! My username on Tumblr is ElsaEditorial, same as on here. There's a link on my profile page. :)  
**


	30. Chapter 30

**When you get to the end of this chapter, all I can say is: TRUST ME. The story is not over.**

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Beth sang softly to herself as she folded each article of her and Daryl's clothing before stashing them in two small drawers in the trailer. Ever since they had found the trailer earlier in the day, she was unable to wipe the smile off her face. It wasn't much, but it was a home, and a portable home at that. After successfully hitching the trailer to the truck, they had driven for another hour before coming across signs for Reed Bingham state park. It seemed like a good place to spend the night, and now the truck and trailer were parked in Reed Bingham's deserted campground. The campground had functioning water pumps, enabling them to fill up the trailer's water tanks, and Daryl was currently making use of the woods around the campground to hunt them something to eat for dinner.

Beth couldn't resist utilizing the time until he returned to move some of their belongings into the trailer. The task felt like moving into a new home, and it was soothing for Beth. She had divided some of the supplies between the truck and trailer, keeping some of the essentials like food, water, and first aid in the truck in case they ran into difficulties with the trailer, but for the most part, she had transferred most of their belongings to the trailer. The multitude of cabinets and drawers in the trailer provided ample storage.

The trailer was a bit chilly, as its walls were rather thin, but Beth didn't mind. Even though the trailer didn't have a heater, it was still more protection from the elements than sleeping outdoors would have been. They hadn't yet been able to test the trailer's electricity, as the battery had been dead, but after some time in the sun, they hoped the solar panels would acquire enough energy to recharge the battery. But even if it turned out that the trailer's solar panels no longer functioned, the charming little trailer had enraptured Beth. And with the ability to hop in the truck and go at a moment's notice with their home attached behind them, it made her feel safer in case they had to make a quick getaway.

The telltale moan of a walker outside tore Beth out of her thoughts. She peered out the window and sighed as a lone biter shuffled toward the trailer, drawn by the sound of her singing. Before she could go outside to dispose of it, however, an arrow sailed through the air and pierced its skull from behind. Beth grinned as she saw Daryl emerge from the trees with two rabbits slung over his shoulder and his crossbow in hand. She opened the door of the trailer and smiled as he approached.

"Looks like your hunt was successful. That didn't take long," she called to him.

Daryl nodded and retrieved his arrow from the downed walker, dragging it a ways away from where they had made camp.

"Wanna get a fire goin' while I gut 'em?" he asked.

"Sure," Beth agreed. She pulled her coat tighter around herself and closed the trailer door behind her, stepping over the perimeter alarm they had strung around the trailer and going over to one of the pre-made fire pits that were already present at the campground. It didn't take her long to get a fire started, a skill she had quickly picked up from when she and Daryl had been on the run before. She raised her hands to the flames to warm them, and the sparrow ring on her right hand caught her eye as usual. She smiled softly as she gazed at it. She never got tired of admiring it.

"Have you tested the electricity in the trailer again?" Daryl's voice called to her. She turned around and shook her head.

"No, not yet. You think the solar panels have had enough time to charge?"

Daryl shrugged. "Dunno. But it can't hurt to try. Go give the lights a flip and see if they turn on. Trailer's been in the sun for a few hours, so the battery might have enough juice to tell us if it still works."

Beth nodded in agreement. She walked back toward the trailer, stepping over the perimeter alarm again, and went inside. She reached for the string attached to the light above the kitchenette and gave it a tug. The light flickered and came on, filling the small trailer with a soft light and a slight hum from the fixture. Beth grinned widely and turned the light back off.

"It works!" she exclaimed happily as she made her way back outside.

"Good," Daryl replied with a grin. "We shouldn't use it unless we have to though. The water pump is electric, so if we wanna make use of it, we gotta save the power for that. Plus, a trailer all lit up in the dark of night might attract unwanted attention."

Beth knew he meant from both the dead and the living, and she nodded.

"We've been living without electricity for so long that I won't know the difference not using it," she said. "I'd love to make use of that oven though. If we could find the right ingredients, I could make homemade bread!"

"That will be a pretty damn good day," Daryl agreed, his mouth watering at the thought of freshly baked bread. They hadn't found any spare propane to take with them at the garage, but most gas stations had propane, and he was sure they could find some to take with them for future use. He made a mental note to find a gas station soon.

Once Daryl finished gutting and skinning the rabbits, he set about cooking them over the fire. Beth went back to moving their things into the trailer while the meat cooked, and Daryl smiled a little when he heard her soft singing as she worked. A portable home and soon a good meal had made for another great day.

* * *

Beth could tell she was driving Daryl crazy as she ground herself against him again. They were both completely naked, illuminated only by the light of the moon shining into the dark trailer. Beth had Daryl pushed back on the twin bed, her legs straddling his lap. His eyes were dark and dilated, and Beth knew it wasn't just because of the low light in the trailer. She rotated her hips again, earning a groan from him as she rubbed her wet slit against the length of him. She hadn't allowed him to penetrate her yet, however, and she was enjoying toying with him as she rubbed herself against his hard cock.

Daryl's rough hands grasped her hips and pushed her body harder against him. Beth drew back from him with a coy smirk on her face before grasping each of his hands and pushing them back down on the bed.

"I said no touching," she murmured, and Daryl groaned in frustration.

"I dunno what game you're playin', but you're drivin' me crazy, girl," he growled. Beth gave him an impish grin.

"That's the point."

Daryl groaned again and kept his hands flat on the bed, which was clearly difficult for him. Beth resisted the urge to snicker at him and thrust her hips forward again. The movements had his shaft slick with her juices, and each thrust from her hips stimulated her clit just enough to give her a little burst of pleasure each time she moved. She moved herself against him a few more times before finally raising herself and aligning her entrance with the tip of his cock. Beth met Daryl's intense gaze as she slowly lowered herself onto him. Daryl let loose a gruff moan as her heat finally enveloped him, and his hands automatically went back to her hips. Beth stilled and arched an eyebrow at him. He huffed in annoyance and placed his hands back on the bed, and Beth smirked in response.

When she was sure Daryl was obeying her "no touching" order, she began slowly riding him. Keeping her hands on his shoulders, anchoring him to the bed, she raised her hips up to draw herself off of his length almost to the tip before snapping her hips back down to fill herself completely with him. Daryl groaned with each stroke of her hips, and the sound only turned Beth on further. Daryl's hands were fisted in the sheets on the small bed, clenching them for dear life in an attempt not to roughly grasp Beth's hips and flip her over to take control. Beth could sense his desire for dominance, but she didn't give in. Instead, she firmly seized both of his hands by his wrists and pinned them above his head. She knew that he could overpower her any time he wanted, but he allowed her to maintain control, using as much weight of her body as she could to keep his wrists pinned to the bed above his head as she continued to ride him.

When Beth could sense that Daryl was getting close, she slowed her pace. Keeping him deep inside her, she nudged her hips forward gently. Each small thrust of her hips pushed him against the sensitive spot deep inside her. Beth sped up her movements again, but still didn't allow much of his length to pull out of her with each movement. Not only did the small thrusts give her the pleasure she needed, but they also provided a sense of intimacy that only added to the intensity. Beth felt her climax quickly approaching, and she rode him a little harder to get herself there. The pleasure combined with the sight of Daryl's intense stare, his body pinned beneath hers in submission, soon sent her crashing over the edge. She cried out as her muscles contracted around him, sending waves of pleasure and dizziness washing over her.

Unable to control himself any longer, Daryl seized the opportunity and roughly flipped Beth over as she rode out her orgasm. She didn't protest to his taking control, and his large hands immediately found their way beneath her body, lifting her ass up off the bed. Daryl began pounding into her, knowing she liked the slight pain that came with the depth he was able to reach from this angle. She reached down to where their bodies met and began rubbing small circles on her clit as he thrust into her mercilessly. Daryl tried not to focus on it, tried to think of other things to prolong the inevitable so that she could get off a second time. He could tell she was still sensitive from her first orgasm, and he began fucking her faster, causing her to moan out his name.

"Cum for me, Beth," Daryl demanded, his voice rough.

She moved her fingers over her clit faster, and not long after, he felt her clenching around him again as she came a second time.

"Fuck," Daryl grunted as he quickly pulled out and finished on her stomach. He fell onto his side next to her and tried to catch his breath.

"Well if that isn't the perfect ending to a great day, I don't know what is," Beth sighed happily.

"Couldn't agree more," Daryl grunted. "We gotta get better about usin' those condoms though. Even though you're on birth control, it's a risk we don't need to take."

"I know," Beth said. "It's just hard to remember sometimes when we're in the moment."

"Yeah, and when you're drivin' me crazy like you were earlier, I ain't able to think 'bout anything but getting inside you as soon as possible."

Beth giggled. "But driving you crazy is so fun."

Daryl chuckled and rolled his eyes. This woman was going to be the end of him.

* * *

Beth looked out the window of the truck and bid a fond farewell to the campground they had stayed at the night before. Both of them had slept well, despite the short time they'd had to rest in between their turns at watch, and Beth was ready for another day on the road. Their plan was to hopefully make it to the Georgia/Florida state line today, which would be a monumental moment for Daryl, who had yet to leave the state of Georgia. Before heading south, however, they were traveling a few miles west to the tiny town of Ellenton to hopefully find a gas station with propane they could take with them for the trailer's gas stove.

The town was only about three miles from the campground, and it didn't take long before they were pulling into the city limits. Ellenton only comprised a few blocks, and soon they had located the town's gas station. Daryl shot Beth a grin when they noticed the stock of small propane tanks outside the gas station building. Daryl quickly scanned the area and grabbed his crossbow as Beth tugged her pink hammer from her belt loop. Neither of them needed to say anything as they both exited the truck in unison.

The town seemed quiet, and Daryl quickly began loading tanks of propane into the truck bed. Beth kept her eyes on the town around them as he moved. It wasn't until Daryl had already loaded several tanks that she noticed a few walkers starting to shuffle toward them from the direction of the center of town. There were only three of them, and she felt sure she could take them down without Daryl's help. She quickly and quietly made her way toward them, her hammer raised. She swiftly swung the head of the hammer into the fragile skull of one of the dead. As it fell, she swung around and took down another. The third walker was fast approaching, but Beth smoothly retracted her hammer from the second biter and buried it in the final walker's forehead.

She turned around to flash Daryl a victorious smile, but rather than being met with the sight of him, she instead saw a group of walkers spilling out of an alleyway between them. There were about fifteen of them, and their sudden appearance blocked her path back to the truck. She could see Daryl already springing into action, however, and she resigned herself to the battle before them.

Before she could even raise her hammer, an arrow sailed into the skull of the walker nearest to her, and Beth almost smiled at Daryl's quickness. She quickly swung her hammer into the head of a biter next to her and used her spare hand to pull out her Swiss army knife as she tugged the hammer free. Daryl was whistling at the crowd of dead, trying to draw them toward him, and Beth took advantage of the distraction to dispatch several of the dead from behind when they weren't looking her way.

Daryl had his hunting knife out and was using it to take down several other walkers with impressive finesse. Now there were only a few of the dead left, which Daryl seemed to be handling on his own as they approached him. Beth suddenly heard the snarl of another walker next to her, and she whirled around and thrust the clawed end of her hammer through its face. She suddenly noticed that three other biters were shuffling up on her, and she hurriedly pulled the hammer free, ignoring the bits of bone and flesh that clung to it. They were closing in, and she simultaneously swung her hammer into the head of one of them while thrusting her Swiss army knife into the skull of the other. The third walker was fast approaching, and she frantically tried to pull both of her weapons free. She quickly looked over her shoulder at Daryl, who was finishing off the final two walkers by the truck. Before she could free her weapons, however, she felt a sharp, excruciating pain in her shoulder by her neck.

Beth screamed, and an instant later, an arrow was sailing through the air and into the skull of the walker that was on her. But it was too late. The damage had been done, and the blood was already dripping down her chest from where she had been bitten. Her ears were ringing, and the only sound she could hear was the pounding of Daryl's footsteps as he sprinted toward her. She raised a hand to her shoulder, frowning at the blood that covered her palm as she withdrew her hand.

"Oh," was all she could say before her knees gave out beneath her.

* * *

**Like I said before, trust me. **

**I'll try to get this next chapter out sooner than usual so you don't have to wait so long for it. I know you're probably not happy with me, but please review anyway! Reviews are always appreciated. :)**


	31. Chapter 31

**I can't believe how quickly I was able to write this chapter. It's short, but emotional, so I'll also be posting chapter 32 right after I post this one! Enjoy and please review!**

* * *

_Beth. No, not Beth. No, no, no, no, no._

Daryl was filled with sheer panic as he sprinted toward Beth. He hardly noticed the final walker that he distractedly put down with his knife as he ran. The only thing on his mind was Beth. He reached her as her knees suddenly gave out, and he caught her before she hit the ground. The place where her left shoulder met her neck was steadily bleeding, and Daryl felt utter dismay wash over him when he realized that the wound was not in a place that could be amputated to prevent the spread of infection. The bite wasn't as bad as some that he had seen, and it appeared that no major arteries had been damaged, but it didn't matter. Beth had been bitten. His insides turned to ice as the full realization of what had happened hit him.

Daryl clutched Beth tightly to his chest and clung to her as if he was hanging on for dear life. She was conscious, but seemed to be in a daze. He pulled back from her abruptly and hastily tugged the red rag from his back pocket. He pressed it to her wound, causing her to wince, and applied pressure to try to slow the bleeding. She stared up at him with wide eyes, still saying nothing. Daryl tried to swallow the lump in his throat and ignore the horrible sick feeling in his stomach.

"You're . . . you're gonna be fine, Beth," Daryl croaked out. "S'nothin' we can't fix . . ."

His voice didn't sound convincing, and the look in Beth's eyes told him that she knew what this meant. But still, he couldn't stop himself from continuing to apply pressure to her wound, as if it would save her. The moan of a single walker sounded from down the street, and Daryl quickly gathered Beth into his arms.

"Gotta go," he grunted as he began carrying her back to the truck. "We'll go back to the campground to uh . . . to get you cleaned up."

_Or to give you a decent place to spend your last hours, _his mind thought bitterly, and he once again had to stave off a wave of nausea as he thought about how his time left with Beth was limited. He had to focus on other things. He _had _to.

Beth didn't protest when Daryl put her in the truck cab. He raced around to the driver's side and quickly pulled out of the gas station parking lot. She leaned her head against the window and watched the surroundings go by as they drove the short distance back to Reed Bingham state park. Her silence was unnerving, but Daryl didn't know what he expected her to say. When the truck pulled back into the campground they had just left not even an hour earlier and parked in the same spot, he quickly jumped out of the truck and ran around to Beth's side. He scooped her into his arms again and walked around to the trailer door, pulling it open and laying her down on the bed. Her blood immediately stained the white covers, but he didn't care.

He hurried to the set of drawers closest to the bathroom and wrenched them open, finding the first aid supplies Beth had told him earlier that she had placed there. He grabbed some gauze, peroxide, antibiotic ointment, and tape before opening the drawer that held his clothing, pulling out a spare T-shirt. He went to the sink and wet it with clean water before turning to face Beth with the supplies in hand. She was sitting up on the bed now and looking more coherent, but she was still quiet. He quickly strode over to the bed and sat down next to her.

"Gonna get your shirt off so I can clean you up proper," he muttered. "Gotta get this wound dressed right away, don't want it getting infected."

"Daryl . . ." she said his name softly, and her tone was almost apologetic. Daryl ignored her and started gently wiping the blood away from her skin around the wound with the wet T-shirt. Beth watched him solemnly and raised her arms as best as she could in cooperation when he went to remove her shirt. She let him clean and disinfect the wound, wincing softly in the process. Finally the wound was covered with clean gauze, hiding the monstrosity from view.

"There, good as new," Daryl said, eying his handiwork. "We just gotta make sure we keep it clean—"

"Daryl, stop," Beth said gently. He looked up at her sharply, and the sadness in her large blue eyes was heartbreaking. "It's no use. You know it, and I know it."

Daryl shook his head furiously, as if he refused to accept it. He felt sick again, and there was a pressure in his chest that made him feel like something was squeezing his heart until it was about to burst. He tried to take a few deep breaths, but even breathing was painful.

"I don't know what to do," he choked out suddenly. Beth gave him a small sad smile.

"Just be with me," she said softly. "I don't know how much time I really have, and I want to spend whatever's left of it in your arms. There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

Daryl had known this since the moment he had seen it happen, but hearing her say the words made it too real. He felt himself crumbling, all of his strength evaporating into nothing. A strangled sob escaped him, and he was unable to stop the onslaught of tears that followed. He felt like his heart was being torn from his chest. He covered his face with his hands, sobbing into them without abandon. Beth leaned against him, embracing him as best as her injured shoulder would allow.

"I can't lose you, Beth," Daryl spluttered between sobs. "Can't go on without you."

"Yes you can," Beth said firmly, her voice oddly strong. "Remember what I told you? You're gonna be the last man standing."

Daryl's mind flashed back to that night, and he also remembered what else she'd said. _You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon. _The memory only made him cry harder when he realized the cold hard truth of that statement Beth had made all those months ago. Beth's wrapped her small hands around his wrists and pulled his hands away from his face. She laced her fingers with his and held both of his hands tightly in her own as she leaned her body against his.

She let him cry for a while; how long, Daryl wasn't sure. He finally managed to regain some control of his emotions, but the sharp ache in his chest was still there, and he imagined that the ache would probably be there forever from then on. The hole in his heart where Beth should be. He realized then that he had never told her how he felt about her, and he turned to her, feeling vulnerable and open.

"Never got to tell you how I feel," he said, his voice scratchy and rough from crying. "I—"

"I know," Beth said quickly. "I know how you feel. You don't have to say it."

"But I want to."

Beth shook her head. "Don't. If you do, it feels like goodbye. I don't want to say goodbye."

Daryl swallowed hard, using all the strength he could muster not to burst into tears again. Beth smiled sadly at him.

"You don't need to tell me with words how you feel," she said. "You've shown me every day. And I know this sucks, and it certainly isn't how I hoped I would go, but you need to know that the past few months have been the best in my life. And that's because of you. I'm so thankful for that. You showed me more about myself than I ever could have hoped to learn on my own. You believed in me. And you made me feel like I'm strong. And most importantly, you made me feel loved. No one, not even my family, has made me feel as loved as you do."

More tears escaped Daryl's eyes and he nodded in understanding. He didn't know how Beth could be so positive at a time like this, but then again, that was Beth. Even when the end was near, she still saw the bright side of things. It absolutely killed him to know that her light would soon be extinguished. The world needed more bright souls like hers. He drew in a shaky breath and tightened his grip on her hands.

"Should've protected you better. Should've kept you safe."

"Stop," Beth ordered. "Do not blame yourself. This was not your fault. You did keep me safe. And without the skills you taught me, I probably would have been gone long ago. You helped me grow into the strong woman I am today. Remember that."

Daryl nodded once and stared down at their entwined hands. He remembered who Beth had been when he had first met her: the sad, suicidal teenager who thought she couldn't handle living in this world. It was truly incredible how far she had come since then. She was right, she was strong, one of the strongest women he knew. But in the end, her strength hadn't been enough.

"What am I gonna do?" he asked her helplessly, his tone sounding like a lost child.

"Just live, Daryl. You just gotta keep living. Keep going down to Florida, just like we planned."

"Can't do that," Daryl shook his head. "Can't go without you."

"Sure you can. You're strong, Daryl. You'll get through this. Last man standing, I promise you."

He nodded, though he didn't believe her. Beth had become the foundation of his strength. Without her, he felt that he would crumble and disintegrate. All of his fears about falling in love were coming true, and he had no idea how he was going to get through the trials that followed. He took in another shaky deep breath and released Beth's hands from his vise-like grip. He propped up the pillows on the bed and lay back, motioning for her to lie with him in his arms. She carefully maneuvered herself to lie on her good side with her head on his chest, and she tangled her legs with his. Daryl wrapped his strong arms around her and held her close to him, trying not to think about how this would be the last time he could hold her like this.

"Daryl?" Beth asked softly. He hummed in response. "When . . . when the time comes, promise me that you won't let me turn. Death doesn't scare me as much as I thought it would, but I can't stand the thought of becoming a monster that could hurt someone else."

Daryl's throat constricted again, but he nodded. He couldn't stand the thought of Beth's reanimated body either. She was too good and too pure for such a fate.

"Okay," he murmured. "Won't let you turn. I promise."

"Thank you," Beth replied softly, snuggling closer to him.

Two tears escaped Daryl's eyes and slid down his face as he looked down at the love of his life in his arms.

"Anything for you, Beth."

* * *

**Poor Daryl. Now, on to chapter 32!**


	32. Chapter 32

**And here's chapter 32! Please review! **

* * *

Beth jolted awake suddenly, her abrupt movement jostling Daryl awake as well. She couldn't remember when either of them had fallen asleep. Judging from the light outside, it looked to be around early evening, which meant that she and Daryl had been asleep for most of the day. Beth moved to sit up, but a sharp pain from her wounded shoulder reminded her of her dire situation, and she suddenly regretted wasting so much of her precious time left sleeping. She looked to Daryl, who was watching her with a wary look on his face.

"When did we fall asleep?" Beth croaked, her voice scratchy from sleep.

"Not sure," Daryl replied.

He looked terrible; his eyes were swollen and red, and despite their long nap, he still looked exhausted. She suddenly wondered how horrible she herself looked. She remembered how awful it had been when her family members had gotten sick after being bitten, and how she had wished she could do something for them to ease their suffering. With the aid of modern medicine, Beth had never seen anyone so sick before the outbreak. She remembered how high Shawn's fever had gotten before he finally passed; it had seemed like he was so hot that he could heat an entire room.

Suddenly the realization dawned on her: she didn't feel feverish at all. In fact, aside from the throbbing pain in her shoulder, she felt fine. She whirled around to face Daryl, who looked confused by her sudden movement.

"Feel my head," she demanded. "Do I have a fever?"

He narrowed his eyes and placed the back of his hand to her forehead. He frowned when he pulled his hand away, but shook his head.

"No. No fever."

"How long does it usually take for the fever to take hold?" Beth wondered. She couldn't remember how soon after being bitten her family members had started showing symptoms. It had been such a stressful and confusing time, and sometimes the details seemed to blur together.

"Usually just a couple hours," Daryl said. "It varies. But I don't think I've seen it take longer than half a day."

Beth bit her lip and gazed outside again.

"We left here this morning around 8 or so. We were probably back here by 9. Now it looks like the sun will be going down in an hour or two, so it's probably about 4:00. That's seven hours. Why don't I have a fever yet?"

Daryl frowned and studied her with a piercing gaze. He raised his hand to her head again and shrugged.

"Maybe it's just takin' longer than it does with other people. You got any other symptoms?"

"No," Beth shook her head. "Aside from the pain from the bite, I feel fine."

"No dizziness or nothin'? Nausea?"

Beth slowly stood from the bed, but her feet felt steady beneath her. She took a few steps, but her gait didn't falter.

"No, no dizziness," she said. "And no nausea, either. In fact, I'm starving. We haven't eaten since we had those peaches for breakfast."

Daryl looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, okay. Guess we should eat then."

"We should probably change this bandage, too," Beth suggested, looking down at the gauze that showed spots of blood that had seeped through.

"Thought you said it didn't matter?" Daryl said quietly.

"It probably doesn't," Beth agreed. "But it can't hurt. Maybe my immune system is stronger than most or something. If I have more time left with you, I'm certainly going to take advantage of it. And making sure this wound doesn't get infected will help me do that."

"Okay," Daryl said simply. He stood from the bed and stretched before grabbing the first aid supplies that were still on the kitchen counter. Beth sat down in the kitchen table booth with her injured shoulder facing him. He carefully peeled away the gauze, prompting Beth to wince from the pain. She glanced down, but was unable to see most of the wound due to its placement near her neck.

"Wait," she said. "In the drawer with my clothes, there's a small pocket mirror. Bring it to me? I want to see the damage."

Daryl hesitated as if he was unsure whether letting her see the wound was a good idea, but he gave in after a moment and fetched the mirror for her. He handed it to her and she held it up with her good arm. She hissed in a slow breath as she examined the injury in the mirror's reflection. The puncture marks made by the walker's teeth were obvious, but it appeared that Daryl's arrow had downed the biter before it had a chance to tear the flesh off her body. The wound certainly wasn't pretty, but Beth knew that it could have been a lot worse. She grimaced and set the mirror down on the table, a silent go-ahead for Daryl to resume cleaning and bandaging the wound.

Beth wasn't sure why the fever hadn't yet overcome her, but she was thankful for the extra time she had been given. She knew her time would come eventually, and probably soon, but for now, she wanted to focus on the blessing that was her body's delayed response to the bite. Every moment she could spend with Daryl was precious, and she didn't intend on wasting any of it.

She wasn't as afraid of death as she thought she would be, now that it was fast approaching. And it wasn't because at one time, she hadn't wanted to live anymore. It was because she knew she _had _lived, and had lived well. Despite the end of the world and her young age, she had been blessed with a wonderful life. It was more than a lot of people had ever had. She knew what it was like to be loved, and to fight for something she believed in.

In a way, maybe the apocalypse had made her more accepting of her own mortality. The usual hopes and dreams of a young woman no longer applied, and Beth didn't feel like she was going to be missing out on much. She would have liked to grow old with Daryl, possibly in a little cottage on the beach, maybe even have a child or two if they could make it safe enough. But that dream was so improbable even without her getting bitten that it didn't seem like it was being taken away from her. Instead, she focused on the memories she and Daryl had created together, and they were more than enough.

Once Daryl had finished cleaning and bandaging her wound, he looked at her with question in his eyes, as if unsure what to do next. Beth could sense that he was on edge, just waiting for her to take a turn for the worse. She smiled brightly at him to try to put him at ease. They would deal with it when the time came, but for now, Beth just wanted to enjoy the time she had left.

"I say we get some jerky to snack on and get out that deck of cards. You promised me a long time ago that you'd teach me to play poker, and I still want to learn."

Daryl didn't say anything, but nodded once. Beth went to fetch the cards that they had taken so long ago from their visit to the farm while Daryl retrieved the jerky from the truck. She heard him stringing up the perimeter alarm outside the trailer, something they had neglected to do upon their return to the campsite earlier. After a few minutes he reappeared with the jerky and some canned tomatoes in hand. Beth sat down at the kitchen table and motioned for him to do the same.

"You'll have to shuffle," she said. "I was never very good at it, and it would probably hurt my shoulder to try anyway."

Daryl still didn't say anything, and he didn't shuffle the cards either. He just looked at her, his eyes clearly betraying the sadness he was really feeling. He looked so lost and broken, and Beth wished she could take his pain away. She sighed and reached across the table with her good arm, placing a comforting hand on his forearm.

"How can you be so . . . so normal right now?" he asked suddenly. "Any minute you could get sick, and then be gone. How can you just want to play cards like nothin' is wrong?"

"You're missing the point," Beth said softly. "You're right that any minute I could get sick, and then the clock really starts ticking. But that's exactly why I have to pretend nothing is wrong. If you knew you only had a little time left, would you rather spend that time moping and feeling sad for what you're going to lose? Or would you rather spend that time with a person you love having fun?"

Daryl shrugged, but Beth could tell he understood.

"I'm going to enjoy the time I have left," she said. "I'm not going to waste a single minute of it."

Daryl eyed her from across the table, his lips twitching a little into an attempt at a half smile.

"You're amazin', you know that?" he said suddenly.

"Of course I know that," Beth replied with a wink. "Now shuffle those cards. We've got a game to play."

* * *

Beth wasn't sure what time it was when she and Daryl finally decided to turn in for the night. It was late, that much she knew, for they had continued playing cards and just talking for many hours after sunset. Daryl had allowed one of the lights to be turned on, so long as they drew the shades on the windows. Beth knew he had only permitted such a thing because of the circumstances, but she didn't mind. It had enabled them to spend a lovely evening together.

As she had suspected, Beth was a terrible poker player, even with Daryl's instruction. After several games, she had given up and amused herself with conversation. Daryl had been quiet for most of the evening, and she could see in his eyes that he was preparing himself for the worst, but so far, she remained symptom-free.

It had been around fifteen hours since she had been bitten, and Beth didn't know why she still displayed no symptoms. But she felt thankful that she had been able to enjoy the time spent with Daryl, and if it so happened that she didn't wake up in the morning, she would have no regrets for how she had spent her last night, reminiscing about old memories both before and after the end of the world with the man she loved.

Normally, Daryl would have taken watch outside long before now. But of course, the circumstances changed that, too. When Beth finally grew tired enough to need to sleep, likely after midnight judging from how long after sunset they had been spending time together, he climbed into the small bed next to her without her even needing to ask. Beth situated herself on her good side with Daryl's warm body pressed against hers from behind, and she sighed contentedly as his arm wrapped around her and drew her closer to him. Yes, if this was her last night on Earth, this was exactly how she would want to go.

"Thank you," she murmured softly into the quiet, dark trailer.

"For what?"

"Everything."

He said nothing, but his hold on her tightened a little, and Beth knew he understood.

"I love you, Daryl. And I always will."

His grip tightened even further, but he still remained silent. He didn't need to say a word; Beth felt the warmth of his body and the tightness of his loving embrace, and she felt content. She felt at peace. She hoped she would wake again in the morning, but if she didn't, that was okay. Everything was okay. And the feeling of fulfillment slowly lulled her into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

* * *

**I have already started writing chapter 33, so hopefully it won't be longer than a few days before I can get it posted. The three-day weekend should help! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend as well. Please review! :)**


	33. Chapter 33

**I have to admit that I am loving your reactions to the past few chapters! :D**

**I wanted to spend more time revising this chapter, but I know you were all anxiously awaiting an update, so here it is! Enjoy and please review! :)**

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Beth's eyes fluttered open, and she sighed contentedly as she heard the sounds of birds chirping outside. She stretched, wincing when the movement pained her shoulder. She looked behind her to see Daryl watching her intently, his head propped up on his hand as if he had been watching her for some time.

"Good morning," Beth murmured. "How long have you been awake?"

"A while," Daryl grunted in return. "You still ain't got a fever."

Beth gave him a soft smile, realizing that she still felt just fine. She sat up and gingerly touched the gauze on her wound. It was sore, but no more blood had seeped through the bandage that she could see.

"It's been almost twenty-four hours now," she said. "And I still don't have any symptoms."

Daryl nodded once, still watching her intently.

"I couldn't sleep much," he admitted. "Kept checkin' on you. But you never got warmer than you should."

Beth bit her lip as she considered the circumstances. As far as she and Daryl knew, most people came down with a fever or at least some kind of symptoms mere hours after being bitten. At first, Beth had thought that perhaps her immune system had delayed the onset of her symptoms, but their continued absence made her wonder. She should have been sick, or maybe even dead, by now.

"Do you think it's possible that I wasn't infected?" she wondered. "You shot the walker down before its bite got too deep. I mean, I know it definitely bit me, but maybe because the bite wasn't so bad, I didn't get infected?"

"It don't work like that," Daryl shook his head. "You can get infected even if one of 'em just scratches you. That bite was plenty deep enough to pass on the infection."

Beth's mind was racing as she considered the possibilities. She didn't want to get her hopes up too much, but she couldn't help considering that this wasn't the end for her. She stood from the bed and began slowly pacing.

"We're all already infected though," she stated. "When we die, we turn no matter how we die. So if we're already carriers of the virus, how would getting bitten be a death sentence? We should already have the virus in our blood, so coming into contact with it from a walker bite shouldn't matter, right?"

Daryl sighed and shrugged.

"I dunno why it works like that, Beth. I ain't no scientist. I just know that if you get bit, you die. End of story."

"Okay, well, even if that's true, it's possible that some people are immune, right? I mean, out of the almost 7 billion people who were on the planet when this outbreak struck, there has to be _some _of us who are immune for whatever reason."

Daryl was frowning at her, his expression unsure and hesitant. He looked like he had just swallowed something unpleasant, and Beth could tell he was far from convinced.

"I'm just saying, what if I'm immune? It's a possibility, you have to acknowledge that. It's been twenty-four hours since I was bitten, and aside from the actual wound, I have zero symptoms. There has to be a reason for that, and maybe me being immune is it."

"Beth . . . just stop, please," Daryl said suddenly. Beth frowned in confusion.

"Why? I'm just speculating."

Daryl was quiet for a moment, and Beth sat back down on the bed next to him. His eyes showed the pain he was in, but Beth didn't know why. He seemed reluctant to discuss this newfound hope.

"I just spent the past twenty-four hours tryin' to accept the fact that you ain't gonna make it. I've been holdin' you in my arms recognizin' that it would be the last time I could do that. I came to grips that I gotta make the most of the time left I have with you, and I still wanna do that. But I just can't get my hopes up that everythin' will turn out okay."

"Why not?"

"Dammit, Beth, can't you see what this is doin' to me?" Daryl snapped, his voice cracking a little. "I can't go through this again. I can't suddenly start hopin' that everythin' is fine only to have it yanked away when you finally do start showin' symptoms. I just can't handle it."

"Oh," Beth said softly, suddenly understanding. She knew how hard this had to be for him, especially since he had never let anyone in as he had with her. She had to try to understand his point of view, and as much as she wanted to consider the possibility that this wasn't the end for her, she had to remember that Daryl's emotional state was extremely fragile. She rose to her knees and moved behind him on the bed, gingerly wrapping her arms around his middle and pressing her torso against his back. She felt him slowly exhale a deep breath.

"I'm sorry for getting ahead of myself," she said quietly. "We'll take it one step at a time. One hour at a time. And we'll see how things go."

Daryl nodded once, placing his large hands over hers and holding them tightly. Beth wasn't letting go of her hope, she was just going to avoid discussing it out loud until more time had passed. But one thing was for sure: she desperately wanted to prove to Daryl that having hope wasn't a bad thing, and that miracles were possible.

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With each hour that passed, Beth grew more and more hopeful that her symptoms weren't just delayed, but that they would fail to appear completely. She didn't voice her hopes aloud, as Daryl was still watching her warily, waiting for the event he dreaded to begin. Beth could almost see the walls he was constructing around himself, steeling himself for what he thought was to come. It pained her to see him in such a state, but she wasn't sure what she could do to help him. She understood that he was trying to protect himself and to prepare himself for the tragedy he was expecting. She just wished he could have more hope like she did.

Beth's spirits were high, and her continued lack of symptoms kept her in a good mood. She tried to joke around with Daryl, to try to get him to loosen up a little, but her efforts were mostly in vain. He only offered small half-smiles that didn't reach his eyes. She tried suggesting that he go on a hunt to clear his head, but he refused to leave her side, and he wouldn't concede to her going along on a hunt either. He grew more closed off as time passed, and the pain behind his eyes never faded. By the end of the day, he seemed almost as if he had already lost her. He seemed hollow and defeated. It broke Beth's heart to see, but it was also starting to wear on her. Why was he so convinced that she wasn't going to make it? Why couldn't he share her hope even a little bit?

She tried to remind herself of the position he was in. Not knowing whether she would make it had to be torture for him, and the waiting was likely the worst part. The longer Beth went without symptoms, the longer he had to wait for certainty over what would happen. And with Daryl's defensive tendencies, his instinct probably told him to prepare for the worst. He never was very good at being positive, especially in situations like these. Beth continued to keep her private hopes and questions to herself for his sake, instead showering him with her usual brightness and happy demeanor in hopes that he would see that she really was okay, at least for the time being.

As day faded into night, and morning rolled around once again, now marking forty-eight hours since she had been bitten, Beth found herself unable to keep her hopes to herself any longer. There had to be a reason for her lack of symptoms, and Beth was becoming further convinced that she was not going to get sick or turn. Her wound was even doing better, since she had insisted on caring for it as if she wasn't going to pass. After Daryl had finished changing the bandage that morning, she made up her mind to make him talk about the situation.

"We should think about getting on the road again," she said casually, delicately pulling her shirt back on over her fresh bandage. Daryl looked up at her sharply and frowned.

"Don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Campground's safe, or at least sorta safe. Think we should stay here until . . ."

He trailed off, and Beth sighed a little impatiently.

"Until what? Until I get sick and die?"

Daryl dropped her gaze and stared down at his hands.

"What if that's not going to happen?" Beth asked. "It's been two days, Daryl. I understand your unwillingness to believe that I won't get sick, I know how hard this is for you. But you have to admit that it's a possibility."

He eyed her with uncertainty and began chewing on his thumb nail anxiously. He shrugged once.

"I can't . . ."

"Yes you can, Daryl. The only reason you won't consider it is because you're too busy preparing yourself for the worst. What if the worst never happens? Two days and not a single symptom has shown up. It has to mean something. There has to be a reason that I'm not getting sick. I need you to acknowledge the possibility."

Daryl shrugged again, and Beth continued on despite his lack of response.

"I'd like to find a library," she said. "I want to do some research to see how likely it is that I may be immune to the virus, or at least figure out if there is a reason my symptoms might not have shown up yet."

"You ain't gonna find any info at a library. The outbreak happened too quick for anyone to publish a book on it. Besides, you know what we found out at the CDC before we came to your farm. Even the experts didn't know much."

"Well I know I won't find any information directly about this virus. But I can research other outbreaks of infectious diseases throughout history and maybe learn something from that."

"I dunno, Beth. The last time we went into a town didn't exactly turn out well," Daryl sighed, his eyes darting to her wounded shoulder.

"So we won't go back to Ellenton. There are plenty of towns we can visit instead, and we can be extra careful about it. Just because we had a bad experience doesn't mean all towns will be like that—"

"A bad experience?" Daryl cut her off. "I'd say this was more than just a bad fuckin' experience. This was pretty much the worst fuckin' thing that could have happened. Fuck, Beth, I don't even know if you'll be here tomorrow as it is, and now you want me to put you at risk _again _so you can fuckin' _research_?"

"Yes," Beth said simply. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to downplay what happened, and like I said, I understand how hard this must be for you. But I need you to try to understand what this is like for me. Like you said, we don't know if I'll even be here tomorrow, but for some reason, I'm still here now. And I need to know _why_. I need answers. This is my life that's on the line and I need to know why I'm still here. Even if I don't find the information I need, I have to at least try. Can't you understand that?"

Daryl sighed heavily, but Beth could see the resignation coming over him. He looked to the floor and nodded.

"Okay," he said quietly. "But I don't like this."

"I know. Like I said, we'll be extra careful. We'll sit down and look at the map and pick a place, and we'll make sure to scout it out well before we ever get out of the truck."

"And you better stay next to me the whole time," Daryl demanded. "Gotta protect you. I hate thinkin' about how I might not lose you, but then end up losin' you tryin' to find out why, you know?"

Beth gave him a small smile. "Does that mean you're admitting that me not getting sick is a possibility?"

Daryl shrugged. "I ain't sayin' it is, but I ain't sayin' it's not, either. I still don't wanna get my hopes up till more time has passed I guess."

Beth sighed, wishing that he wasn't still in such a self-protective state. But even so, it was progress, and Beth was happy to take any progress she could get. She was anxious to be able to possibly learn more about her situation, but even if she wasn't able to find out the information she sought, she was happy that Daryl was willing to let her try. She gave him an understanding smile and moved to sit down at the kitchen table.

"Why don't you go grab the map from the truck?" she suggested. "Let's start planning."

Daryl nodded and made his way outside. All they had to do now was pick a town and they would be on their way to hopefully find some of the insight Beth so desperately wanted.

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**Thanks for reading! Please review! :)**


	34. Chapter 34

**I really meant to get this chapter out sooner! I went on a brief vacation and then I had major writer's block after returning. Please forgive me for the wait!**

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Beth had to admit that she was nervous heading into town to visit the nearest library. The last time they had gone into town, she had been bitten, and the town had been much smaller than the one they were heading to today. But the Cook County Library was in the town of Adel, and her need for answers was stronger than her anxiety about the dangers that the town could hold.

Daryl was clearly even more nervous than she was. He was endlessly gnawing on his thumb nail as he drove, and Beth could feel the tension radiating off of him. She couldn't blame him, though. It had been hard enough to convince him to go to the library at all, and for good reason. But Beth couldn't just sit around waiting for something to happen; she had to know how likely it was for her to be immune. Daryl was clearly still unconvinced of the possibility, but Beth had hope, and her hope only grew with each hour that passed with no symptoms.

Their plan was to go to the library and the library alone, grab all the books that could possibly contain any helpful information, and head back to the campground so Beth could research there in the safety the campground's isolation offered. Daryl had emphasized several times how important it was to be in and out, no dawdling. Beth had joked around about the last time they'd gotten distracted in a library, but Daryl hadn't been amused. He clearly just wanted to get the ordeal over with.

Beth kept her eyes peeled for signs of trouble as they entered Adel's city limits. The town had had a population of about 5,000 before the outbreak, meaning it was one of the largest towns Daryl and Beth had dared to enter in quite some time. However, she only saw a few straggler walkers wandering the town's streets. Beth decided to take that as a good sign. Until she had actual cause for concern, needlessly worrying wasn't going to do her any good.

It didn't take long for them to find the library. Daryl pulled up into the first parking spot out front by the book return box. Both of them scanned the area, but thankfully saw no walkers approaching the single-story building. Daryl reached for his crossbow and Beth tugged her pink hammer from her belt loop, also grabbing several bags to load up with books.

"Remember what I said," Daryl grunted to her. "You stay close to me. I don't want you more than an arm's length away. Got it?"

She resisted the urge to sigh. "Yes. And we'll be in and out, just like we discussed."

Daryl gave her a curt nod before the two of them exited the truck. He made his way over to a row of windows along the front wall with Beth following, but shades blocked their view of the inside. He gave the window a heavy tap and waited. Nothing stirred inside, and they walked over to the front door. Daryl readied his crossbow as Beth gave the door a pull. It was unlocked and swiftly swung open to reveal the darkened interior of the library. Daryl knocked the butt of his bow along the doorframe, but still the inside remained quiet.

Daryl entered the library first with Beth on his heels. He went over to the front windows and quickly opened the shades, allowing light from outside to enter the shadowed library. He then began quickly walking past each aisle, crossbow raised, searching for threats. Normally they probably would have determined that the library's silence meant it was walker-free, but not today. Daryl was especially on edge, and he was determined to take every precaution. When he had surveyed the entirety of the library and was satisfied it was safe, he lowered his bow and went to close the front door.

"All right. Find what you need and let's get out of here."

Beth nodded and quickly made her way over to the nonfiction section. She scanned the titles until she found the section she was looking for. The library had an impressive selection of titles relevant to what she wanted, and she hastily began loading her bags with anything related to infectious disease, whether it be history books, medical textbooks, or even _Microbiology for Dummies. _Before long, her bags were bursting with relevant material.

"You really need all that?" Daryl commented as he glanced down at her full bags.

"I'm just taking everything that's relevant," Beth shrugged. "And who knows, maybe some of this stuff will come in handy in the future if one of us gets sick or injured."

She could see Daryl's jaw ticking as if he wanted to say, _One of us is already sick and injured._ But he kept his mouth shut and nodded curtly.

"C'mon, help me carry all this out to the truck," Beth said, grasping a few of the heavy bags in her hands. Daryl grabbed the others and the two of them made their way back toward the entrance. Beth hesitated for a moment, glancing at Daryl to make sure he was still waking, and grabbed several novels from the "Staff Recommendations" shelf. She hurried to catch up with Daryl before he noticed and fell into step behind him. They loaded the full bags into the trailer and climbed inside the truck.

"Are you sure you don't want to look for any supplies while we're here in town?" Beth asked, glancing around at the still quiet surroundings.

"Ain't takin' no risks we don't need to take," Daryl muttered in response, answering as Beth had expected he would.

He started the truck and they began the short drive back to the campground. Adel was only about 8 miles from the campground, and soon they were pulling back into their usual parking spot. Beth hopped out of the truck and made her way into the trailer, eager to begin her research. She grabbed a notebook to write down any pertinent information and situated herself at the kitchen table, the bags of books surrounding her. She heard Daryl stringing up the perimeter alarm outside as she pulled the first book toward her.

Beth had hardly made it through a few paragraphs before Daryl entered the trailer and stood beside the table, looking over her shoulder and staring down at the pen poised in her hand above her notebook. She glanced up at him with arched eyebrows.

"Are you just gonna stand there and stare or are you going to help?" she asked pointedly.

Daryl shrugged. "I ain't good at research. Never really done it before."

"It's not hard. You never wrote a research paper in school?"

"High school dropout, remember?" Daryl shrugged again.

Beth sighed and set down her pen.

"Why don't you go on a hunt?" she suggested. "It's going to be a little hard to focus with you hovering over me like that."

Daryl shook his head. "Ain't leavin'."

Beth sighed again. She had understood his refusal to leave her side the day before, when it was more uncertain how much time she would have left. But now, his stubborn refusal to leave her side was starting to annoy her.

"For Pete's sake, Daryl, if I somehow suddenly develop a fever, I'm not going to croak right away. You aren't going to leave and come back to find me on my deathbed. And if you're really that worried about it, just stay close by and check on me as often as you like."

He didn't look convinced.

"It will help you clear your head, you know it will," Beth pressed on. "And it will get you out of my hair so I can think. It's a win-win idea for both of us."

"I dunno," Daryl mumbled. "What if a herd comes through while I'm gone? Or people find the campsite?"

"If you stay close by, you'll hear trouble approaching. Besides, if my time left really is limited, it would be nice to have a good meal. Please, Daryl? Catch us a nice fat rabbit for dinner?"

She flashed him her best smile, and Daryl sighed in resignation.

"All right," he muttered. "But I ain't goin' far. And I'll be back to check on you every half hour."

"Perfect," Beth grinned. He hesitated for a short moment before leaning down and pressing a firm kiss to the top of her head. Beth tried to ignore the fact that it looked like he was taking his last look at her before he finally opened the trailer door and left, closing the door softly behind him. Beth picked up her pen again and took full advantage of the now quiet trailer, immersing herself in her research.

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_Innate immunity. Adaptive immunity. Natural immunity. Artificial immunity. Passive immunity. Active immunity. Specific immunity. Non-specific immunity. Premunity. Asymptomatic carrier. _

Beth's notebook was filled with her scribbled research notes, and her hand ached from all the writing. By the time sunset was near, she had filled pages upon pages of the notebook with facts and information. Many of the books had contained the same information with varying levels of detail, and after perusing them all afternoon, Beth felt she had a decent understanding of the subject matter.

Daryl's hunt had been successful as well. He seemed slightly more relaxed after he returned, which Beth suspected would be the case. She stood from the kitchen table and stretched before grabbing her notebook and going outside to where Daryl was roasting the freshly caught rabbit over the fire. He looked up and gave her a nod in acknowledgement as she sat down next to him.

"So? What'd you find out?" he asked. Beth had been shooing him away all afternoon so she could focus, and she could tell he was eager to find out what she had learned.

"Lots of things," she said, flipping through her notes. "If I am immune, it's likely either innate immunity, meaning I was born with something that makes me immune to the virus, or natural active immunity, which means that I developed an immune response after exposure to the virus."

"Any way to tell which it would be?"

"No, but it doesn't really matter. Immunity is immunity. But from what I've been reading, throughout history, a small percentage of the population is immune to almost every disease. Now, this outbreak could be different considering its almost supernatural effects and widespread reach, but I sort of doubt it. We know it's a virus, and if history repeats itself as it usually does, a percentage of the population is probably immune to it."

Daryl grunted in response and turned the rabbit over the fire, not looking Beth in the eye. She ignored his less-than-enthusiastic reply.

"Take the Black Death, for example. It was a huge pandemic that killed about one third of Europe's population, and an estimated 40% of the population worldwide. But about 0.2% of the European population was immune," she continued, looking down at her notes. "When DNA was studied from these people's remains, they found unusual protein structures that gave them that immunity. Obviously those people survived the plague and passed their DNA on to their descendants. Apparently the odds are that about 15% of Caucasian Americans now have this gene that makes them immune to the bubonic plague."

"Well, this ain't the Black Death," Daryl replied. "And this outbreak's death toll is much higher than the Black Death's was. Plus, all of us are infected, so it's definitely more widespread. I'd say that it's an optimistic guess to say that 90% of the population was wiped out, and when that remaining 10% dies, they'll join the ranks of the dead and infected. Totally different scenario."

"Yes, you're right," Beth agreed. "It was just an example. But that brings me to my next point. I might not be immune at all. I could be an asymptomatic carrier."

Daryl frowned in confusion.

"It means that I have the disease, and I carry the virus, but I display no symptoms. Have you ever heard of Typhoid Mary?"

"Heard of her, I think. As an expression maybe."

"Yeah," Beth nodded. "Basically she was a cook who worked in New York City in the early 1900s. The people she worked for kept getting typhoid fever, even when she changed employers. They say she's responsible for infecting over 50 people. She was forced into quarantine in 1907 where they determined that she was a carrier of typhoid. She never displayed any symptoms herself, but she was a carrier of the disease. She lived to be 69 years old and died of pneumonia, and apparently during her autopsy, live typhoid bacteria were found in her gallbladder. She went her whole life without ever having any symptoms of the disease, but she definitely carried it."

"So you think you could be like her? A . . . what is it, a carrier?"

"An asymptomatic carrier. Yes. I think it's very possible. Even if I have the virus, like we all presumably do, I may not ever display symptoms."

"Yeah, but like I said with the Black Death, this ain't typhoid fever."

"I know that, Daryl," Beth replied somewhat shortly. "I'm just saying, these are examples. These things have happened before. Why should this be any different? I just want you to acknowledge that it is entirely possible that I won't get sick at all. Whether it's because I'm immune or whether it's because I'm an asymptomatic carrier, it doesn't matter. It's very possible I can live a long and healthy life despite the bite."

Daryl sighed and stared into the fire. He gave a slow nod.

"All right. It's possible. I guess we'll just wait to see what happens."

Beth had to resist the urge to snap at him. His defeatist attitude was wearing on her. She wished he could be more positive and more hopeful. She felt incredibly frustrated that he was still waiting for her to get sick and die. It was disheartening. But still, she was glad that she had at least been able to prove to him that similar situations had happened in the past, and she felt even more hopeful herself after learning more about them.

"I sure do miss modern science," she sighed wistfully, and Daryl nodded. "If the entire world hadn't gone to shit, maybe someone could study my blood or DNA or whatever and tell me for sure what's actually going on."

"Yeah, who knows, maybe you would've been the cure to save mankind," Daryl joked half-heartedly, the corners of his mouth slightly turning upwards in an attempt to smile.

"I guess the world will never know," Beth smiled somewhat sadly, leaning into Daryl.

He put his arm around her and drew her closer to him, and she closed her eyes and breathed in his scent. Maybe Daryl wasn't completely convinced yet, but Beth was determined that eventually, he would be.

_Watch out, world, _she thought to herself as she listened to the crackling of the fire. _I'm going to show you what Beth Greene is capable of._

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**Someone recently asked me how long I expect this story to be. I don't have a concrete answer for that, but I'm going to guess around 45 chapters, give or take a few. We're nearing the end of the story, but there's still more to be told before we get there. :)  
**

**Thanks so much for reading! Please review! **


	35. Chapter 35

**You're probably tired of reading my apologies for delays on updates, but once again, I'm sorry for the wait. I've been having writer's block with this story lately.**

**And for the guest reviewer who said she misses my smut: the end of this chapter is for you. ;)**

**Enjoy!**

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By the time five days had passed since being bitten, Beth was fed up with Daryl's negativity. She still displayed no symptoms, which was now no surprise to Beth. She was now convinced that no symptoms would ever show up, especially after reading about the possibilities during her research a few days prior. Daryl wasn't arguing against her apparent immunity per se, but the wounded look his eyes held when he gazed at her remained the same, as if each time he looked at her would be the last time he would see her. Beth had had enough of it.

Her wound was doing much better, too. While searching for edible greens around the campsite, Beth had found some wild plantain, the leaves of which were known for their healing properties. She had made a poultice from the plantain and applied it to her wound, and it seemed to have sped up the healing process. Now, she had started going without a bandage to let the wound air out, and it had begun to scab over. It wasn't too red or inflamed, meaning their mindful care had prevented the injury from becoming infected. The progress she'd made with her healing combined with her lack of symptoms only added to Beth's aggravation over the delicate way Daryl was still treating her, as if she were a fragile china doll that could shatter at any moment.

She tried to remain pleasant and to remember that this ordeal had to be extremely difficult for him, but such feats were much easier in the days immediately following the bite. As she sat next to him by the fire now after dinner, the darkness falling around them as the sun made its descent below the horizon, she tried once again to remind herself of the internal struggle Daryl was experiencing. But regardless of her regard for Daryl's fragile emotions, she could keep her mouth shut about the issue no longer. Each day they remained at the campsite felt longer than the last, and Beth was tired of staying there as if they were just waiting for her life to end.

"We should think about getting back on the road tomorrow," she said matter-of-factly, breaking the silence between them.

Daryl shrugged and didn't meet her eyes. "Dunno if we should leave here just yet."

Beth sighed impatiently. "Why? Because you're still waiting for me to die?"

Daryl looked up at her sharply, a wounded look on his face, and for a moment, Beth felt a little guilty.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But that's what it feels like. Even though it has been five whole days and I still have no symptoms, and even though the bite is actually healing really well, and even despite the information we learned from all those books, you _still _look at me as though I'm just a ticking time bomb."

"I don't—"

"Yes you do, Daryl," Beth cut him off. "I can see it in your eyes every time you look at me. You don't say anything, but you don't need to. It's like every time you look at me, you're almost saying goodbye in your mind. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"

He broke her gaze and looked down at the ground. He looked like a wounded animal, and it made Beth want to hug him and push him away all at once.

"You know how they say that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is?" he asked quietly. "That's how this seems. Like it's too good to be true. It's a goddamn miracle you're still alive, Beth, and I ain't ever believed in miracles."

"You're right. It is a miracle. But I'm a walking, talking, living, breathing example of why miracles _do_ exist. Why can't you at least try to accept that?"

"I am tryin'," Daryl retorted, his voice sounding strained. "I'm tryin' so damn hard, Beth. But it ain't easy. My whole life I've had shit taken away from me, and I'm sorry that I still think that way. You're everythin' to me. So it just seems fittin' that I'd end up losin' you at some point."

Beth shook her head furiously. "No. That defeatist attitude has to stop, Daryl. It _has _to. I know you're refusing to accept this miracle as some sort of messed up self-defense mechanism, but I need you to get past that. For me."

Daryl shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, still staring at the ground.

"My mother used to say that your beliefs and thoughts have a big impact on your physical wellbeing," she said. "Sort of like a mind over matter thing, but not quite. Like during flu season for example, she would say that if you thought you were going to get sick, you probably would, whereas if you believed that you would remain healthy, you probably would. I believe that I am not going to get sick. I am not going to die. But your hesitance to accept that makes believing that a little bit harder for me. I feel like it's almost toxic to be around you because your negativity brings me down. And right now, I _really_ need to keep believing that I'll be fine. I need to keep that belief intact. Do you see what I'm saying?"

He nodded solemnly, now looking a bit guilty.

"I would really appreciate it if you could just _pretend_ that you believe I'm in the clear. Just pretend that I won't end up getting sick, for my sake. And maybe, if you pretend long enough and enough time passes, you'll start legitimately believing it yourself."

Daryl finally looked up from the ground and met her eyes, and she could almost sense his surrender. He nodded again.

"Okay," he said simply.

He didn't need to say anything else. Beth could tell that he understood. She gave him a small, relieved smile and exhaled a long breath, as if she was expelling all the stress from the past few days. She straightened up a bit and looked back to the fire, enjoying the feeling of its warmth on her face.

"So . . . are you still opposed to getting back on the road?" she asked tentatively.

"Not necessarily," Daryl replied. "But it might not be such a bad idea to stick around here for a while. We have access to clean water from the campground's pumps, and we're definitely far enough away from the threat that drove us out of the cabin. Maybe we could stay here for a while, put up some fences to make it safer or somethin'?"

"Well, you're right about the access to clean water, and that's nice, but I would rather not stay here. We came back here because it was a safe place for me to spend the time we thought I had left. Since then, we've just been waiting. This place is just a constant reminder of that. It feels like purgatory."

"Then we'll go," Daryl said. "Tomorrow morning, we'll go."

"Thank you," Beth said softly with a smile. She leaned against him and he wrapped his arm around her to pull her closer. His other hand went to cup her face, turning it up toward his. He pressed his lips to hers in a long, gentle kiss that left Beth slightly breathless when he pulled away.

"Is it too soon to ask you to make love to me?" she murmured. It had been six days since they had last been intimate, which was the longest they had gone without it since they had first made love. Beth felt deprived of it; she needed him, and not just for the sexual pleasure, but for the intimacy.

Daryl didn't respond verbally, but instead stood from where he sat by the fire and bent down to scoop Beth into his arms bridal style. She yelped in surprise, a grin spreading across her face as he carried her over to the trailer. She reached down to open the door since his hands were obviously full, and Daryl kicked it shut behind him after entering the trailer. He laid her down gently on the bed and climbed on top of her to lie between her legs, propping himself up on his elbows and looking down at her. His gaze held an intensity that wasn't there moments before, and Beth could almost feel the palpable heat from it as his eyes bored into hers.

"You're my world, Beth," he said quietly, his low gravelly voice sending shivers down her spine. "And you ain't goin' anywhere. I ain't gonna let anythin' take the world from me."

Beth felt herself beaming at him. Whether he was just pretending that he didn't believe she would die didn't matter; to hear those words from him made her chest swell with love and relief.

"You're damn right I'm not going anywhere," she agreed firmly. "I'm here, and I'm yours, forever."

"I love you, Beth." His voice was almost a whisper as he said it. "I know you said you don't need me to say it, that you already know, but . . . well, I ain't ever told anyone that before, and you deserve to know without a doubt that I love you with every fucking part of me."

Beth's chest swelled again, feeling like a balloon that was about to burst from happiness. She had known that Daryl loved her for a while; he didn't need words to communicate it. And after the bite, she hadn't wanted him to say it because it had felt like a goodbye, as if he were only saying it because she wouldn't be there the next day. But now, it felt completely different. She knew he was being genuine, and she appreciated how much weight his words held. To be the first person he had ever confessed love to was overwhelming. She drew in a shuddering breath and tucked a few strands of his dirty hair behind his ears.

"I love you more than words can say," she said.

Daryl lowered his head and closed the distance between them, his lips claiming hers with possessive ferocity. Beth responded in kind and opened her lips to tangle his tongue with her own. She laced her fingers through his hair, her grip tightening as their passionate kiss grew more heated. She felt the weight of his pelvis grinding against her center, and the friction quickly drove her wild with need. Beth bucked her hips against him, earning a low growl from deep in his throat.

His hands found their way under her shirt and tugged it upward, slowing down only briefly to help her remove it without hurting her injured shoulder. As soon as the shirt was tossed to the floor, his fervency resumed, and her bra quickly joined her shirt on the floor. Beth's small hands followed his lead and frantically tore the shirt over his head. Her hands then moved to the fastenings of his pants as he began to kiss down her neck to her chest, his facial hair tickling and scratching her sensitive skin. Beth tugged his pants and underwear down his thighs. His erection sprang free as he moved a little farther down to capture one of her perfect nipples in his mouth. Beth's hands once again buried themselves in his hair, her breathing heavy, as he swirled his tongue around her nipple, feeling it harden instantly in his mouth. He pulled away and gave the other nipple the same treatment. When it was equally hard as its twin, he rose to his knees and began unfastening her jeans. His movements were suddenly slower and more deliberate, and his eyes remained focused on her own. He pulled her jeans off one leg at a time before tossing them to the floor to join the rest of their discarded clothing. Still keeping his eyes on hers, he hooked his fingers into the elastic of her panties and slowly dragged them down her legs. When they landed on the floor, he finally broke her stare to allow his eyes to travel down her body, as if he was memorizing every inch of her.

Daryl reached for Beth's right arm and brought it to his mouth, delivering soft kisses to the inside of her wrist. His mouth moved up the rest of her arm, over her collarbone, around her healing wound on her other shoulder, and down her left arm as well. He hovered over her and began kissing down her chest next, before moving over the expanse of creamy skin that was her lean stomach. He paused at each of her hip bones, delivering a sensual open-mouthed kiss to the hollow of each one, which made Beth shiver and break out in goosebumps. He continued kissing every inch of skin he could reach, up and down each of her legs, and Beth felt like he was literally worshiping her with his mouth, giving thanks for every part of her that continued to live and thrive. It felt incredibly intimate, and Beth was already slightly dizzy by the time his mouth trailed open-mouthed kisses along her inner thigh and finally reached her center.

He began by just kissing her there, too, moving his mouth along the length of her slit almost teasingly before giving her a delicate swipe with his tongue. Beth moaned and bucked her hips a little, her legs already quivering slightly from the brief contact with his tongue. Daryl teased her with his tongue a few more times, touching her ever so lightly. Finally he pressed his tongue down harder on her clit, and Beth jerked in response. He swirled his tongue around her sensitive bud a few times, earning several breathy moans from Beth.

"Gotta remember to keep quiet," he grunted up to her. "Thin walls, and no fence outside to stop any walkers."

She nodded quickly and grabbed the pillow from under her head to muffle the sound of her moans. Daryl thrust both hands beneath her ass, holding one cheek in each palm and squeezing them possessively. He caressed his thumbs over her opening and delicately spread her lips open to him.

"Like a beautiful fuckin' flower," he growled, making Beth's stomach clench in arousal.

He returned his tongue to her slit, delving inside a few times before flicking it quickly across her clit. His thumbs continued to caress her opening, peeling her lips apart and tracing the length of her slit along the edges while he assaulted her clit with his tongue. Beth was moaning desperately into the pillow, and Daryl just hoped it was muffling the sound enough, because he wasn't planning on stopping any time soon.

He raised one of his thumbs up to her hood, tugging it upward to expose more of her pearl to him, while his other thumb continued to trace her opening. He alternated his tongue's touch on her clit between firm, steady circles and feather-light flicks with the tip of his tongue, alternating according to her body's response to each. When her legs began to tremble more noticeably, he knew she was close. He tugged one of his hands free from under her ass and sank two fingers into her wet opening. He increased the speed and pressure of his tongue on her clit as he fucked her with his fingers, curling them toward her belly with each stroke. Her tension continued to build until it finally reached a pinnacle, her entire body seizing up beneath him and seeming to snap as her orgasm suddenly crashed over her. Daryl pressed his tongue firmly against her clit as she shuddered and rode out her climax.

When she had stopped shaking, she pulled the pillow away from her mouth and stared down at him, her eyes dark and dilated and her breathing labored. Daryl crawled over her and settled himself between her legs. She pulled his face down to hers and kissed him with everything she had, tasting herself on his lips. Without breaking the kiss, Daryl suddenly thrust into her, both of them moaning into each other's mouths. Beth wrapped her legs around his waist and hooked her ankles together. As he withdrew from her and thrust back in, her heels nudged him forward, showing him how hard she wanted it. Each thrust felt slow, deep, and deliberate. He was going to take his time with her, go as slow and as deep as he could manage.

Daryl had to cover Beth's mouth with his own to muffle her cries of pleasure. He felt as though each time he bottomed out inside her, he was getting closer to her, and he needed to be as close as he possibly could. The rest of the world and all the trials they had endured in the past few days were gone; there was only her, and there would only ever be her.

It didn't take long before Beth's walls began to flutter and constrict around him. He clamped a hand over her mouth as she came, hardly able to control the sounds she made in her euphoria. He pumped himself into her once, twice, three times, before quickly pulling out and spilling his seed on her stomach with a groan. He removed his hand from her mouth and panted in an attempt to catch his breath as he leaned over her, her eyes sparkling and warm as they looked up at him. He leaned down and kissed her feverishly for a few moments, both of their chests still heaving.

"I love you so fuckin' much," Daryl murmured as he pulled away.

Beth gave him a dazzling smile, and he found that he had never been more thankful for the angel he was able to call his.

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**Thank you for reading and please review! :)**


	36. Chapter 36

**This is sort of a filler chapter. The next chapter will be much more interesting! :D**

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Beth was in very high spirits as she and Daryl got back on the road the next morning. She sang softly as they drove, the sweet sound of her voice filling the truck cab as the wind from the open windows tousled her hair. Her good mood had proven to be contagious, as Daryl found himself in good spirits as well. They were once again heading south, following their original plan to head to the Florida coast.

Before leaving the campground that morning, they had filled all of the trailer's water tanks, as well as the water jugs and bottles they had been using before they had come across the trailer. The supply of fresh water would last them at least a week, and much longer if they used natural water sources along the way for bathing. Daryl had also gone out right before sunrise on a hunt, and there were three fat rabbits already butchered and ready to be cooked for later meals. They were stashed in the trailer's small refrigerator, which was currently the only thing utilizing the solar-powered batteries to run.

Beth's bite wound had now completely scabbed over, and it looked to be healing very well. Her healing coupled with the conversation they'd had the night before had Daryl feeling better about the whole thing. Internally, he was still a little hesitant to completely accept that Beth was immune, but he had already started bringing down the walls he had put up to prepare himself for her death. He knew it was just a stupid self-defense mechanism, but what she had said the night before made sense. Attitude and beliefs did have an impact on one's health, and he was going to work hard not to dampen Beth's attitude.

As he glanced over to her now in the passenger seat next to him, singing quietly with a smile on her face, she was so bright and full of life that it almost seemed ludicrous that only days before, they had believed she would die. She looked over to him and caught his eye before flashing him one of her usual dazzling smiles. Daryl felt almost physically warmed by her smile, and it seemed impossible that the pure goodness that was Beth would ever fade away. The corners of his own mouth turned up into a smile as well as he turned his attention back to the road. He may have still been pretending just a little for her, but seeing her like this made it so easy that he was almost completely convinced that she would always be just fine.

The two of them drove in companionable silence for a while, Beth breaking the quiet every now and then to hum or sing softly. Daryl felt at ease for the first time in days, and he realized suddenly how exhausted he was. It wasn't as though he felt like he would nod off at the wheel, but he felt in his bones how trying the emotional rollercoaster the past few days had been. He found himself longing for their little cabin they'd had to leave behind, because all he wanted to do was hole up somewhere with Beth with their only real concern being what he would be able to hunt for dinner. He sighed and tried not to dwell on things he could not change, and instead tried to focus on the beautiful woman who was still alive and well next to him. No matter where they ended up, as long has he had her, he knew he would be okay.

"We'll need to pull over and stop pretty soon," Beth said suddenly.

"Why?"

"Because we're only about ten miles from the Florida border," she replied with a grin on her face.

"So?"

"So, you've never been out of the state of Georgia. That's about to change. We need to make a thing of it! Stand on one side of the state line and walk into Florida. It'll be more exciting than just driving over the border."

Daryl scoffed a little. "Don't gotta make a thing of it. Ain't a big deal."

"Oh yes it is," Beth shook her head. "And it's not just you who should be excited about this. We're crossing state lines for the first time since the world ended. After running around Georgia for so long, I'm looking at Florida like a new beginning. Maybe we can find the home we need there. A real home. You know?"

Daryl hummed in agreement, his eyes still on the road. He had to admit that it was somewhat exciting to leave Georgia, but at the same time, it wasn't that big of a deal to him. State lines were arbitrary borders that meant nothing in today's world. But still, Beth was right. They could use some hope for a new beginning.

"You sure you're ready to say goodbye to Georgia?" he asked after a moment.

"Yes and no. I'm ready for something new and different, but at the same time, I know we're leaving people behind in Georgia. But they've been gone so long that it doesn't hurt very much anymore. Almost feels like we never would have found them anyway, so it's time to move on."

Daryl nodded in understanding.

"Well, if Florida is a bust, we can always go back," he offered, but Beth shook her head.

"No. If Florida is a bust, we should go somewhere else. Alabama or Louisiana maybe. I love Georgia, and it will always be my home, but like I said, it's time to move on. We should create a life for ourselves somewhere new."

"All right," Daryl agreed.

After a few more miles, Beth pointed to a sign up ahead. _Now Leaving Georgia,_ the sign read. Daryl slowed down and pulled to a stop just before the sign. He could see the _Welcome to Florida _sign about a hundred feet up ahead. He glanced over to Beth, who grinned excitedly.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he shrugged, and the two of them quickly climbed out of the truck.

Daryl shouldered his crossbow, his eyes scanning their surroundings for any wandering ghouls, but the area seemed quiet. He felt Beth slip her hand into his as she stood next to him, and he gave her hand a squeeze. They simultaneously took a step forward and began walking in sync toward the _Now Leaving Georgia _sign.

"So what's this then?" Daryl asked as they passed the sign and began walking toward the _Welcome to Florida _sign. "We ain't in Georgia anymore, but we ain't in Florida yet either? So this is just no man's land?"

Beth giggled and nudged his side playfully. "Think of it as the line on the map that separates the two. We're walking on the border right now I guess."

Daryl grinned a little and began to walk faster. He wasn't sure why, but now he was suddenly anxious to reach the Florida sign. He still believed the boundaries to be arbitrary, but something that Beth had said about Florida being a new beginning had resonated with him. Beth matched his increased pace, and soon they were almost to the Florida sign. Daryl slowed down and came to a stop just before the sign.

"Well, this is it," he said with a shrug, the corners of his mouth tugging upward into a smile despite himself.

Beth beamed at him and squeezed his hand. "Ready when you are."

He took a purposeful step forward with Beth walking alongside him. In just a few paces, they were now officially in Florida.

"So? How does it feel to have finally left Georgia?" Beth asked him, still smiling widely.

Daryl shrugged. "Don't feel no different yet. But just wait till we get to the coast. I ain't been to the beach before neither. Not even in Georgia."

Beth's eyes lit up. "I can't wait to see your face when you put your toes in the sand for the first time!"

Daryl chuckled. He was more anxious to gaze out on the ocean. Water for as far as the eye could see, seemingly never-ending, and with walkers' inability to swim, no snarling dead in sight. It was a tranquility he couldn't wait to witness.

"Well, we should get back to the truck. Can't see my reaction to the beach if we don't get there first."

Beth nodded and turned around, her hand still in his as they walked back to the truck. Soon they were back on the road, driving over the border this time, and Daryl was even more anxious to get to their destination. However they had barely driven a few miles into Florida before Beth was suddenly asking him to stop again.

"What is it this time?" he asked impatiently.

"A welcome center just up ahead," Beth said. "Now that we're in Florida, we'll need new maps, especially if we have to keep driving down the coast until we find somewhere safe to stay. The welcome center will have them for sure."

He nodded. "Good idea."

Although Daryl wasn't fond of the idea of stopping, considering he was still on edge about such things since Beth's bite, she did have a point. Their map of Georgia would no longer be of use to them in Florida, and seeing that the state was completely unfamiliar territory for him, Daryl had no desire to be going in blind.

He pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of the welcome center. There were a few other cars in the parking lot, but they looked as though they had been long abandoned. Daryl killed the engine and grabbed his crossbow as Beth tugged her pink hammer free from her belt loop.

"You stay—"

"Right behind you," she finished for him, her eyes twinkling. "I got it."

"This ain't a game, Beth," Daryl growled in response, and Beth sighed lightly.

"I know, I know. Let's go."

She didn't wait for him to respond before jumping out of the truck, and Daryl hastily followed her. His large strides overtook hers and he gently moved her behind him with his arm as they reached the glass doors of the building. As usual, Daryl rapped loudly on the glass and waited. After a few moments, one snarling walker had pressed itself against the glass, but it appeared to be alone. Daryl nodded to Beth, who quickly tugged open the door, allowing Daryl to swiftly put down the walker with his crossbow. He tugged his arrow free and entered the building first with Beth on his heels.

The welcome center was quite small, and it didn't take long to make sure the rest of the building was clear. Beth went to the display of maps and began grabbing several of them, while Daryl went over to the small supply of food that was still on the shelves. He grabbed the few bags of stale chips and crackers that remained before making his way back over to Beth, who had her hands full of maps and tourism guides.

"Let's go," he grunted quietly, and she nodded.

The pair exited the building and were soon back in the truck. As Daryl started up the engine and got back on the highway, Beth began flipping through the maps and tourist guides. After several minutes, she gave an excited gasp.

"Look at this!" she exclaimed, holding up a page of one of the tourist guides.

Daryl glanced over to it and saw a picture of a small lighthouse.

"St. Mark's Lighthouse," Beth read from the guide. "It was built in 1831 and has weathered over 100 historic storms. It used to be open for tours back before the dead started walking and all."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, think about it. A lighthouse would be the perfect watchtower. And it's on the coast. So the sea would be to our backs, leaving just three sides that would need to be defended. Most lighthouses have some kind of keeper's house or something on the grounds, or since this one used to be open for tours, I bet it has a gift shop of sorts. We could use that structure as our shelter, maybe build a fence around it to protect against walkers, and use the lighthouse as a watchtower."

Daryl hummed in thought. "That's all true, but how do you know someone else hasn't already done that?"

Beth shrugged. "We don't know. But it can't hurt to look and find out. And this guide has lots of Florida lighthouses listed, so if this one doesn't work out, we can try the others. This one is the closest to where we are though. About 40 miles away."

Daryl nodded. "Okay. We'll check it out. But we gotta be careful about it. Don't wanna walk into an ambush or somethin'."

"Yes, absolutely," Beth agreed. She pulled out a map to route them to their new destination, and Daryl could practically feel the excitement buzzing off of her.

"I really hope this works out," she said. "It looks like it's surrounded by lots of national forests and parks, which means good hunting grounds for you and less civilization to worry about. And there's lots of rivers and small lakes nearby for fresh water."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Beth," Daryl cautioned. "We ain't even seen it yet. Could be already taken by people we don't wanna get involved with."

"What are we going to do if there are people there?" she asked.

"Go somewhere else," Daryl replied as if it were obvious.

"But what if they're good people? Maybe we could make things work with them?"

Daryl sighed. "We wouldn't have a way to know if they're good people if we're just looking from afar. And I ain't willin' to get close enough to watch and see. Besides, you really wanna try explainin' that bite wound on your shoulder to a bunch of strangers?"

Beth frowned. She hadn't thought about that.

"Well, I'm obviously not sick . . ." she trailed off, feeling unsure.

"Yeah, but someone who don't know you might not be convinced. What if someone tries to put you down 'cause they think you're a liability to others?"

Beth was quiet, knowing Daryl had a point. There was no telling how other people would react to the bite. Maybe they would hail her as a miracle, or maybe they would perceive her as a threat. There was no way to tell how people might react. If they believed that she could still turn and then hurt or infect others in their group, they might turn her away, or they might try to kill her.

"Maybe I could hide it until it heals?" she wondered aloud, fidgeting with her shirt to see if she could position it so that it covered the wound.

"Not unless you got a turtleneck sweater," Daryl shook his head. "And even after it heals, you'll probably have a nasty scar. I don't think you can hide it."

Beth sighed and nodded, most of her excitement now suddenly drained out of her. Daryl reached over and took her hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze. He hadn't meant to be such a killjoy.

"We'll go check it out," he said. "We'll be careful. And we'll play it by ear."

Beth nodded in agreement and turned her attention to the window. Daryl wished he hadn't killed her mood, but what he'd said was the truth. It had taken him several days to accept that Beth wasn't going to turn, and strangers would have no reason to trust them. He just hoped that the lighthouse would be vacant so that he and Beth wouldn't have to worry about such things. Instead of worrying, he focused on the mental image of Beth standing on a beach with her bare toes in the sand, the surf surging up around her ankles and the sea breeze toying with her blonde hair as her bright blue eyes found his. The image brought a smile to his face, and he couldn't wait to make it a reality.

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**Thank you for reading and please review! :)**


	37. Chapter 37

**Visit my Tumblr page (link on profile, username: ElsaEditorial) to see pictures of St. Mark's lighthouse!**

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When Daryl and Beth were within a mile of St. Mark's lighthouse, Daryl pulled the truck to the side of the road and declared that they would approach the rest of the way on foot. Beth agreed with the notion, but she wasn't sure how much good it would do, considering that there wasn't much cover on either side of the road for them to hide behind. Vast, open marshes surrounded both sides of the road, leaving only a thin line of palm trees right next to the road for cover. Still, the light cover the palm trees offered was better than the roar of the truck engine inevitably announcing their arrival whether they wanted it known or not.

Beth kept her pink hammer clutched tightly in her hand as she quietly followed behind Daryl on the side of the road. Daryl had his crossbow drawn, and he had also opted to take one of the automatic rifles with him, which was slung across his back. He had also insisted that Beth carry a small handgun, and it was tucked into the back of her jeans. Both of them typically opted not to use guns, seeing as ammo was limited and the noise drew the attention of walkers, but since neither of them knew what kind of situation they could be walking into at the lighthouse, it was better to be prepared. The last thing they wanted was to be caught in an ambush with nothing but knives, a hammer, and Daryl's crossbow.

Beth could smell the ocean, and she could just barely see the vast expanse of blue water up ahead as they came closer to the coast. She wanted to nudge Daryl, maybe to share an excited smile with him, but he was in full hunter mode, his muscles tense and his steps almost impossibly quiet. Beth knew she would have to wait to celebrate this landmark moment until their safety was no longer a question. She instead focused her energy on mirroring Daryl's silent steps.

When they could just barely see the top of the lighthouse, Daryl crouched and motioned for Beth to do the same. They were only a few hundred feet from the lighthouse, and squinting carefully, Beth could see a man at the top of the lighthouse with a rifle in hand. Her heart sank as she realized that this meant the lighthouse was not vacant as they had hoped.

Daryl crawled forward in the low brush and peeked through the vegetation to examine the rest of the area. Beth mirrored him and observed that whomever was inhabiting the lighthouse was doing their best to make it safe. A tall makeshift fence surrounded the single-story building near the base of the lighthouse. The fence was made of scavenged materials, mostly driftwood and bits and pieces that looked as though they had come from other buildings. It looked to be enough to keep out a few walkers, but if a herd came through or if humans were intent on getting inside, it wouldn't hold for long. Still, it was better than nothing, and Beth's initial idea that the lighthouse would make a good guard tower was clearly proving to be true. The man at the top of the tower was scanning the area, his back to the ocean. It was the perfect vantage point to spot any oncoming threats, and seeing that the lighthouse was surrounded by vast areas of open swampland, it was unlikely that a threat would come from anywhere except the road leading to the lighthouse. The road that she and Daryl were currently crouched beside.

"We gotta move slowly," Daryl whispered. "Guy in the lighthouse will be able to spot any movement. We just gotta inch back the way we came until we're outta sight again."

Beth nodded. Part of her wanted to argue that they should wait and observe the spot some more, maybe see if they could determine whether the inhabitants were good people. But the obvious wound on her shoulder made her rethink that plan. She didn't want to risk exposing herself to strangers when there was no telling what would come of it.

Daryl began slowly backing away to head back the way they had come, remaining crouched down as he did so. Beth mimicked his actions and took a slow step backward, however her foot slipped on the unsteady terrain, and she slid quickly down the short incline opposite the road. Her foot landed in the marsh water, and she winced at the splash it made. She glanced at Daryl, who was frozen in place with his eyes trained on the lighthouse. He held his hand up, silently telling Beth not to move. She obeyed and waited, her entire body tense and on edge. Finally, after several long moments, Daryl motioned to her to start climbing out of the marsh.

Beth tucked her hammer into her belt loop for safe keeping and moved slowly and carefully, trying not to make a sound as she lifted herself out of the water. Daryl held out a hand to help her. Beth reached for it, but before she could grasp his hand, something seized her ankle and forcefully pulled her into the marsh. She couldn't stop the scream that erupted from her throat as she fell backward, and her whole body landed in the shallow water with a loud splash. Spluttering, Beth burst to the surface and began kicking with all her might at the thing that was still attached to her ankle underwater. Daryl was in the water a second later, his strong arms wrapping around her and tugging her toward the shore.

"It's on me, it's still on me!" Beth shrieked, kicking with even more force.

Daryl heaved himself backward on the shore of the marsh and pulled Beth with him with all his might. The slimy, rotting head of a walker finally emerged from the water, its putrid hands still attached to Beth's ankle trying to pull it toward its snapping jaws. The walker looked as though it had been underwater for some time, but in its previous life, it had been a very large and burly man whose strength hadn't completely diminished even in death. Daryl kept one arm wrapped around Beth while his other arm grabbed for the crossbow he'd dropped when he'd jumped in after her. Before he could reach his weapon, a shot rang out, and the snarling ghoul's skull blew apart as a bullet tore through the decaying flesh.

Beth scrambled backward and allowed Daryl to finally pull her from the water. Her heart was racing and both of them were panting for breath as they crawled toward the safety of the road.

"Did it get you?" Daryl asked, and Beth shook her head. It had been a close call, but she hadn't been bitten.

Daryl turned his attention to the lighthouse, where the man who had been on watch was currently aiming his rifle in their direction, watching them through the scope on the weapon. Daryl slowly got to his feet and offered his hand to Beth, helping her stand as well.

"Put your guns on the pavement!" the man in the lighthouse shouted. "The crossbow too."

Beth glanced at Daryl, who nodded. He slowly placed the automatic rifle on the ground, followed by his beloved crossbow, and Beth laid her small handgun on the ground next to the other weapons. The man in the lighthouse whistled, and they could hear the sound of footsteps. The man in the lighthouse called down to whomever was on the ground, but Beth couldn't hear what he'd said. He turned his attention back to Beth and Daryl and kept his rifle aimed in their direction.

The makeshift fence began to slowly slide open, demonstrating that it was on some sort of pulley system. As soon as the fence was open wide enough, a woman darted through the opening with a rifle in her hands. She aimed the rifle at Beth, while the man in the lighthouse appeared to have his own rifle trained on Daryl. Beth raised her hands in surrender, and Daryl did the same.

"What's your business here?" the woman called to them.

"Just checkin' the place out," Daryl responded. "Don't mean any harm."

"How'd you find this place?" the woman asked.

"Tourism brochure," Beth said. "Thought it'd make a good watch tower, so we came to check it out."

The woman nodded, her rifle still aimed steadily at Beth's head.

"This spot's taken," she said. "Leave your guns and the bow and be on your way. You can keep your knives."

Beth glanced at Daryl and could see that his jaw was ticking, likely at the thought of leaving his bow behind. But even so, he nodded once and began to walk backward, not wanting to take his eyes off of the people in front of him. Beth swallowed the lump in her throat and copied his actions. She kept her hands raised as she slowly backed away.

Suddenly she saw movement in the opening of the fence, and another man appeared, also with a gun drawn. When her eyes landed on the man's face, Beth froze in place. She blinked hard, wondering if she was hallucinating, but Daryl had also stopped moving. And when the man suddenly shouted at the two other people to lower their weapons, Beth knew it was no hallucination. Standing only a couple hundred feet from them was none other than Glenn Rhee.

Glenn took off toward them, and Beth broke into a run in his direction, meeting him halfway. The man Beth considered to be her brother in law threw his arms around her and gave her a hug so fierce that it lifted her body off the ground. Beth's eyes filled with tears that quickly spilled over and streamed down her cheeks. She could hardly believe this was happening. When Glenn broke away several moments later, Beth was afraid her knees would give out beneath her. She was almost dizzy from disbelief. Glenn hugged Daryl, who had made his way over to them, and Daryl actually returned the gesture, despite his typical reluctance to show physical affection. Glenn pulled away and looked over his shoulder to the woman who still held her rifle in hand, though not aimed at anything now, a confused expression on her face.

"Tara!" Glenn called. "Get Maggie! Quick!"

"Maggie?" Beth exclaimed. "She's . . . she's here?"

Glenn nodded fiercely, and fresh tears sprang to Beth's eyes again.

"Oh my god," she cried. "Oh my god, is this real?"

The sound of hurried footsteps carried toward them, and suddenly Maggie emerged from the gap in the fence. When her confused eyes landed on Daryl and her younger sister, her face crumbled, and she let out a cry as she ran toward them. Beth sprinted to her sister and nearly knocked her over as she crashed into her. Maggie hugged her so tightly that Beth could barely breathe, but it didn't matter. Her sister was here, she was alive, and this was real.

Beth wasn't sure how long she and Maggie held each other, but it felt like ages before they finally pulled away. Daryl and Glenn were standing next to them watching with wide smiles on their faces, and several other unfamiliar people were beginning to file out of the fence to see what the commotion was about.

"Is anyone else from our group here?" Beth asked.

Maggie shook her head and wiped the tears from her face.

"No. We got separated from them a few months back."

Beth nodded, feeling slightly disappointed, but her relief over being reunited with her sister and her brother in law was more than enough. It was more than Beth had hoped for, especially in Florida. She wiped the tears from her own cheeks and smiled widely at her sister.

"We have so much to talk about," she said, and Maggie nodded fervently. Suddenly she saw her sister's eyes wander to her neck, and her smile immediately vanished.

"Bethy, what happened?" Maggie exclaimed, looking closer. "Did you get bit?! Oh my god, Beth—"

"Maggie, it's fine," Beth said firmly, sensing the panic already rising within her sister.

"What do you mean it's fine? You were bitten! How is that fine?!"

Maggie was on the edge of hysteria, and Glenn was now starting to crowd her to investigate as well. Beth noticed a few of the unfamiliar people also hesitantly approaching, and she felt Daryl step closer to her protectively, as if he would shield her if need be.

"This happened a week ago," Beth said. "But I never got sick. And now it's healing really well, and I still haven't had any symptoms."

"A week?" Glenn asked, staring at the bite almost incredulously. "Most people get sick within a few hours."

"I know. We went to a library and did some research, and it seems very likely that I'm either immune or an asymptomatic carrier, meaning I carry the disease, but will never show symptoms."

Maggie didn't look completely convinced, but Glenn was staring at her wound as if she was some sort of miracle. Beth glanced behind them to the unfamiliar people, who were also staring with varying looks of disbelief.

"I'm going to be fine," Beth said firmly. "I'm not going to get sick. That time has passed. I'm going to be okay, Maggie. You have to trust me."

Maggie nodded slowly, still eying the wound warily, but she flashed Beth a smile nonetheless.

"I wish we had a doctor who could tell us more," Maggie said.

"Yeah, too bad you're not a real scientist, Eugene," Glenn said to one of the unfamiliar people who had gathered around. A man with an awful mullet gave him a grimace in response.

"How did you end up down here in Florida?" Beth asked her sister.

"It's a long story," Maggie replied with a smile. "It seems like we both have a lot of catching up to do."

"Why don't you come on in and we'll chat over some supper?" Glenn suggested. "And we'll introduce you to everyone."

"Got some butchered rabbits in our trailer," Daryl grunted, speaking for the first time since the others had arrived. "Got a pickup truck with a trailer 'bout a mile down the road."

"Great," Glenn nodded. "I'll walk back with you to get it, if you want. You can bring it down here and park it inside the fence."

"Sounds good," Daryl agreed.

"I'm so glad you're here," Maggie said with a smile, her eyes tearing up again. "Now come on. Let me show you around your new home."

* * *

**As some of you know, I've had a hard time getting the motivation to write this story lately. Because of that, it will likely end sooner than I had originally intended. So just a few more chapters and we will be at the end!**

**And as those of you who follow me on Tumblr know, I have also been working on another Bethyl story on the side. It will be published sometime this month. The story is a WWII-era AU romance and is set in 1943. It follows a whirlwind romance between Beth, a factory girl, and Daryl, an enlisted man, during Daryl's week of leave before he is deployed overseas. I have been working on this story for almost 6 months and I'm really excited to finally share it with you. If this seems like something you'd like to read, keep an eye out for it this month. It is called "Bombs Away." **


	38. Chapter 38

**This chapter is a lot summary instead of dialogue, but honestly, telling all this information through dialogue would be tedious to read and even more tedious to write. Hope you enjoy! :)**

* * *

Once Daryl and Glenn returned to the lighthouse with the truck and trailer, parking it inside the fence, Maggie introduced Daryl and Beth to all the unfamiliar faces in this new group. Tara and Rosita both had dark hair and were in their mid- to late-twenties, and Beth thought they both seemed like very capable and strong women. Abraham, a burly man with red hair who had been on watch at the top of the lighthouse when Beth and Daryl had arrived, seemed to demonstrate natural leadership qualities, and Beth wondered if he was the group's unofficial leader, like Rick had been in their former group. Eugene was an odd character; he had an articulate, long-winded way of speaking, and his mullet could not go unnoticed. It was unclear to Beth what his role was in the group. Maggie told them that this had been the group she and Glenn had traveled down to Florida with.

The remaining people in the group had apparently been situated at the lighthouse since everything had started. Rowena, a very free-spirited woman in her mid-thirties with long red hair and skin decorated in plentiful tattoos, had worked at the lighthouse's gift shop and office when the dead began to rise. Lily was Rowena's older sister, and she had left Tallahassee to join Rowena at the lighthouse with her husband Geoff and her teenage daughter Anna right after things had started to go south. Lily had long sandy blonde hair, a gentle face, and a wispy thin figure. Geoff and Anna both had very dark hair and bore a strong resemblance to one another; Anna was definitely her father's daughter. The family all seemed quite friendly, although Beth noticed that Lily watched her warily, her eyes frequently darting to the wound on Beth's shoulder, as if she expected Beth to suddenly turn and attack. It unnerved her, but Beth brushed it off and ignored it, hoping that with time, Lily would come round as Daryl had.

The group gave Daryl and Beth a tour of their new home after introductions were complete. The makeshift fence circled the entire property, and while it was definitely in need of some improvements, it at least created a barrier between the property and any potential intruders, living or dead. Outside the building that had previously been the gift shop and information center, there was a decent-sized garden. Being so near to the shore, the soil was quite sandy, and Rowena told them that it had taken quite a bit of work and several trips to nearby towns to be able to get the garden started. But now there were potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, and raspberries growing in abundance.

Inside the former gift shop, the building had been converted to a living space. The main shop was now a communal area of sorts, and the few offices and storage rooms on the main floor and basement had been converted to bedrooms. Maggie and Glenn shared a room, as did Rosita and Abraham, Eugene and Tara, and Lily, Geoff, and Anna. Rowena slept on a couch in the communal area, as she was usually the first to rise in the morning anyway. It was close quarters, but it was a small price to pay for such an isolated and easily defensible shelter.

Before Maggie and Glenn's group had arrived at the lighthouse, there had been no fence or system of defense other than someone keeping watch in the lighthouse at all times. Rowena told them that since the lighthouse was surrounded by ocean and marshes, the only way to access it was via the road, and most walkers were obviously unable to figure such a thing out. With their inability to swim, most walkers that were drawn to the lighthouse ended up falling into the marshes, such as the biter that had attacked Beth when she had fallen in. The rare walkers that approached on the road were easily disposed of. However after everything Maggie and Glenn's group had experienced over the past few years, they had insisted on building a fence, and they were continuing to fortify it as they were able.

Once the short tour was concluded, the group set about making dinner, roasting the rabbits Daryl had stored in the trailer's fridge along with some potatoes over the fire. Lily and Rowena took over the actual cooking, and the rest of the group situated themselves around the fire. Beth had Maggie on one side of her and Daryl on the other, and she couldn't believe she had gotten so lucky. Now not only did she have the love of her life by her side, but her sister and brother in law as well. It was almost surreal. Maggie flashed her sister a smile that seemed to convey that she felt the same way.

It was then that Maggie and Glenn filled them in on what they had been through since the fall of the prison. Beth was shocked and horrified to learn of Terminus, and she was thankful that she and Daryl had been spared that experience. Maggie told them that Terminus was where they had met Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene. She explained that after escaping Terminus, the group had met Father Gabriel and had taken shelter in his church for a short time. It was then that the group ended up splitting up and going separate ways.

"Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene were on their way to Washington, D.C.," Maggie said. "Abraham said that Eugene was a scientist who knew how to solve this mess if we could get him to D.C. He asked if any of us would be willing to accompany them. And I just thought that it would be nice to have some sort of concrete purpose other than basic survival. I needed that. So Glenn, Tara, and I all decided to go to D.C."

"And the rest of the group didn't want to?" Beth asked.

"Not everyone was up for the journey," Glenn nodded. "It was a really tough decision, but we decided to part ways."

"So . . . what happened to D.C.?" Beth wondered.

"Turns out Eugene isn't a real scientist," Abraham suddenly spat. "He lied to all of us."

Beth glanced at Eugene, who avoided everyone's eyes. She could tell that Abraham was still bitter about the situation, and Eugene was clearly still guilty about it. He didn't try to defend himself, however, and instead just stared at his lap saying nothing.

"But it was Eugene's idea to head south to the coast," Tara interjected then, her tone purposefully light.

"Yeah, it was," Glenn agreed. "We went back to the church to try to find the rest of the group, but by the time we got there, they had already left. Looked like they had left in a hurry. We spent a few weeks trying to hunt them down, but we didn't have any luck. Winter had arrived and we didn't have a permanent shelter. It felt a lot like last winter."

"That's when Eugene suggested that we go south," Rosita chimed in. "It's warmer down here, and with the coast to our backs, it's easier to defend ourselves. Since we didn't have any real destination in mind with D.C. off the table, we decided we might as well check it out. And that's when we stumbled across this little sanctuary."

Rowena and Lily began serving up plates and handing them out to everyone.

"Those were our exact thoughts, too," Beth said. "And honestly, I was just kind of done with Georgia."

As the group began eating, it was Beth's turn to share what had happened to her and Daryl during the past few months. Beth did almost all of the talking; Daryl only grunted and nodded when appropriate, but she hadn't expected him to share much. Beth told them about running from the prison and the moonshine shack, the kidnapping and Daryl's rescue, the cabin and their life there, returning to the farm, Cara and the men who had prompted them to leave their safe haven, and her survival of the bite a week ago. As she told their tale, she was hit with the realization of how much had happened to the pair of them in such a short time, and Beth felt it was no wonder that she had fallen so hard for Daryl. She had left their relationship out of the story, figuring that development was likely clear to everyone from the way Daryl had refused to leave her side since they'd arrived. By the time she was finished talking, everyone had long finished eating and the stars had emerged above them.

"Well, I know we've all been through a lot, but I have to say that I'm glad we all ended up here," Glenn said. "And what are the chances? Seems like it was fate. Like we were all destined to end up here."

"I like that," Beth agreed with a smile.

The group was quiet for a moment before Rowena stood and stretched with a wide yawn.

"Well, I think it's about time for me to turn in," she said. "If y'all want to put your plates in the wash basin on the porch, I'll wash them in the morning."

"I can wash them," Beth offered. "I'd like to help."

"Nonsense. You just got here. Why don't you get settled in first, and then we'll talk about chores," Rowena insisted with a wink.

"I think we'll head inside too," Lilly said, standing up with her family joining her. "It was really lovely to meet you two. We're very happy to have you."

Beth flashed the family a smile and watched as they followed Rowena into the building. She suddenly wondered what it must be like for Anna to be the only one of her age around. She seemed to be around the age of 15 or 16, meaning that Beth was closest to her in age. She decided that she would make an effort to befriend the teen, figuring she could use a friend who wasn't so many years older than she was.

"So I saw you guys have a decent amount of supplies in that truck," Glenn said suddenly, pulling Beth out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, been stockin' up for a while now," Daryl replied, speaking for the first time in a while. "C'mon, I'll show you what we've got."

Daryl, Glenn, and Abraham wandered over to the truck so that Daryl could show them all the supplies they had gathered over the past few months. The rest of the group began to disperse and Maggie turned to her sister.

"It'll be pretty crowded inside, but I'm sure we can find a spot for you," she said.

Beth frowned. "What do you mean? I'd like to keep sleeping in our trailer."

"I just got you back, Bethy. I know I'm being overprotective, especially since you're inside the fence and we'll have someone on watch, but I still don't want you sleeping out here alone."

"I won't be alone. Daryl will be sleeping with me," Beth said casually, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, because to her, it was. "Honestly, I don't know if I could sleep without him next to me. Not anymore."

"You're safe here, Beth. You have all of us to protect you, not just Daryl."

"Maggie, it's not about protection," Beth said slowly, fighting the sudden urge to giggle at the situation. "I thought it was clear that we're together now."

Maggie's eyes widened in realization, and her mouth dropped open a little. She raised a hand to cover her mouth as she gaped at her younger sister.

"Oh!" she stammered out. "Oh . . . really? Daryl?"

"Yes really!" Beth nodded, smiling a little at her sister's look of disbelief.

"Wow. I mean . . . Daryl?" Maggie said again. "He's so . . ."

"If you're going to say that he's too old for me, please save it," Beth interjected, sensing her sister's motherly vibe kicking in.

"No, I wasn't going to say that. I mean, yeah, he's older . . . a lot older, actually, but I don't think stuff like that really matters anymore. No, I was going to say that it's hard to see Daryl in a romantic relationship is all. He's so rough around the edges, you know? I just can't picture it."

Beth laughed lightly and shrugged. "He's still that way, but not all the time. He makes me really, really happy."

Maggie smiled. "If you're happy, then I'm happy. Although I have to say, I'm a little torn between wanting to give him the third degree and wanting to hug him for keeping my sister happy and safe."

"Did you listen to my story earlier?" Beth grinned. "I kept him safe just the same!"

Maggie laughed and leaned against her sister. "Yeah, I guess you did. You're strong. Both of you. Strong survivors."

Beth nodded and rested her head on Maggie's shoulder. It was true. Both she and Daryl were survivors, and they would continue to be, especially in the haven that St. Mark's lighthouse had offered. The two sisters were quiet for several moments, listening to the sounds of the night. Beth could hear the ocean nearby, and the sounds of various conversations around them. No snarls or moans from the dead could be heard at the moment, and it actually felt like life could be _normal _here. The thought filled Beth with so much joy that her chest physically swelled with it, and her cheeks were starting to ache from smiling.

"So wait," Maggie said suddenly, prompting Beth to raise her head from her sister's shoulder and look at her quizzically. "If you and Daryl are together now, does that mean you've also been intimate?"

Beth felt her cheeks flushing, instantly giving away the answer. Maggie laughed triumphantly and nudged Beth playfully.

"Another thing I can't picture. You better give me all the gory details, Bethy! Spare me nothing!"

Beth laughed loudly and held her hands up to her cheeks, feeling their warmth. She was sure that her sister would ask detailed and personal questions about the matter, but Beth was suddenly eager to share. Discussing sex with her older sister felt like something out of a normal life, and once again, Beth was elated to be able to experience that normalcy.

"Okay," she agreed. "But not tonight. Maybe tomorrow we can go somewhere more private and I'll tell you all the gritty details."

Maggie grinned and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, causing Beth to laugh again. This was the start of something new and wonderful; she could feel it. It was a new beginning, and one that she and Daryl had so desperately needed. Beth felt like things could only get better from here.

* * *

**Author's Note: In order for Maggie and Glenn's story to progress the way I wanted it to, in my version of events, the entire Grady hospital storyline doesn't exist. The group willingly split into those going to D.C. and those remaining in Georgia. I'll leave it up to your own imaginations to determine what happened to the rest of the group in Georgia. ;)**

**Thank you for reading and please review!**


	39. Chapter 39

**This is the second to last chapter. After this, there will be a short epilogue and then the story will conclude. Originally I had intended to make this story longer, but I honestly just don't enjoy writing this story anymore, so I'm ending it sooner than originally planned. **

**This chapter is longer than usual, and I included some smut at the end. I couldn't write the last real chapter of this story without smut! ;)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Beth closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, allowing the smell of the ocean to completely fill her. She stood in the gentle surf, the water rushing up over her bare feet to her ankles, and the rhythmic sound of the waves was lulling her into an almost meditative state. She heard footsteps nearing her from behind and opened her eyes, turning to see her sister smiling at her as she approached.

"Crab traps are just over here," Maggie said, pointing down the beach a ways.

Beth nodded and waded out of the water. With her shoes in hand, she followed her sister toward what they had come out here to do, which was to check the group's homemade traps for blue crabs. The crabs were plentiful in this area, and they had become one of the group's major sources of protein. Maggie had volunteered to check the traps that morning, hoping to be able to snag a little alone time with her younger sister.

When Beth had awoken that morning, she had almost forgotten where she was. Her first thought had been that she and Daryl were still at the campground, but then the steady sound of the tide had reminded her, and the miracle of the lighthouse had come rushing back. It still felt a little surreal to her. Part of her wondered if she was just dreaming because it all seemed too good to be true. But it was reality, and Beth had never felt more thankful.

Beth watched as Maggie rolled up her pants and waded into the water a bit, reaching down and hoisting a small wooden trap out of the water. Beth grinned as she noticed the three blue crabs scrambling around inside the trap. Maggie hauled the trap back to the shore and sat down in the sand, motioning for Beth to do the same.

"We'll clean these and get them up to Rosita in a bit. She's making lunch today," Maggie said.

"I can't wait," Beth grinned. "Can't remember the last time I had crab."

"You'll get sick of it soon enough," Maggie teased. "We eat it at least once a day."

"With Daryl here, he'll be able to hunt down some other protein nearby," Beth mentioned. "I'd say we're pretty set to have a varied and balanced diet."

Maggie grinned. "Speaking of Daryl, I do believe you have some beans to spill."

Beth flushed and looked around to see if anyone was lurking nearby. She could hear a distant conversation taking place back by the garden on the other side of the fence, but for the most part, the girls were alone. She looked down the beach a ways and saw Rowena seated cross-legged on the sand, her hands poised motionless above her chest and her eyes closed.

"What's she doing?" Beth asked, distracted by the sight.

"Reiki," Maggie replied. "She does it at least once every day."

"Reiki? What's that?"

"The way Rowena explains it, it's like energy healing. She channels the energy. She says it helps with all sorts of things, and she claims it's how she and her family survived out here for so long with so little protection. Love energy, or something like that."

"So . . . it's like meditation?"

"Kind of. She performs it on herself and others, if they're willing. Having it done on you is nice. It's very relaxing, and you almost feel euphoric afterward. You should ask her about it. She's very into it."

Beth hummed in response and stared down the beach at Rowena. She still sat motionless, but she looked very much at peace. Beth glanced back at Maggie to see her eying her sister expectantly.

"Well?" she asked. "Now that you're done getting distracted, are you going to tell me how Daryl is in bed?"

Beth laughed and rolled her eyes, her cheeks already flushing. She shrugged.

"What do you want to know?"

Maggie grinned deviously as she reached into the trap to grab the first crab to gut and clean.

"I think I might know the answer to this, but I'll ask anyway. Gentle or rough?"

Beth's cheeks grew even warmer and she raised her hands to cover them. But she loved that her sister was here making her feel embarrassed; the normalcy of it had been very strongly missed during their time apart.

"Both," she answered honestly, and Maggie arched her eyebrows in surprise. "Sometimes, he'll pull my hair and be totally dominant, and the look in his eyes is almost predatory," she said, feeling the familiar heat in the pit of her stomach as she pictured it. "But other times, it's slow and almost sweet the way he never breaks eye contact, and it really feels like making love."

"You're such a hopeless romantic," Maggie said, nudging her sister playfully. "So better than Zach?"

"Oh absolutely!" Beth exclaimed, and Maggie snickered. "Daryl was actually the first one to, um . . ."

"To what?"

"To give me an orgasm. Inside, I mean," Beth said in a whisper.

Maggie gasped and gave a small squeal. "Really? Oh, Bethy, I'm so happy for you!"

"Stop," Beth groaned, her cheeks feeling as though they were on fire from how much she was blushing.

"No, I mean it!" Maggie insisted. "Every woman deserves great sex. I'm so glad you've found it."

Beth nodded. "Me too. I just feel so comfortable with him, and every time feels like it's the best I've ever had. It's like he's opened up this whole new world for me."

"My baby sister is all grown up," Maggie teased.

Beth laughed and shrugged. "I guess so. Oh, and Maggie, you'll never guess where we went recently."

Maggie arched her eyebrows in response.

"A porn store. A real-life, dirty, gaudy porn store."

Maggie burst into laughter, and Beth couldn't help joining in.

"I wish I could have been there for that," Maggie said. "So, did you take anything?"

Beth bit her lip and nodded.

"Let's just say I've been introduced to the world of vibrators . . ."

Maggie squealed again and the two sisters lapsed into laughter once more. Beth couldn't believe this was happening, that she was sharing this with her one and only sister, and it was real. Her sides were beginning to hurt from laughing, but it was the best pain in the entire world.

* * *

After lunch, Beth spent a good majority of the afternoon in the garden with Maggie, Tara, and Anna. It was soothing to be able to work with the earth again, and tending to the garden reminded Beth of her father. Tara had proven to be very talkative and easygoing, and she was frequently cracking jokes. Anna was quiet, but always returned the smiles Beth gave her. Beth couldn't help wondering if Anna and Carl would have gotten along, had the rest of the group been here. Both had been forced to grow up quickly and harshly in this world, and both were also proof that the world couldn't completely ruin young people. Anna seemed remarkably well-adjusted, and from the few things she had said during their weeding session, she seemed to share the optimistic outlook Beth had on life.

Daryl had taken the truck up the road a few miles to go on a hunt, leaving the trailer parked in its place beside the building. He'd been gone since lunch, and although Beth was used to him leaving for short periods of time to hunt down their meals, she still couldn't help worrying a bit as time passed. She knew Daryl was more than capable of taking care of himself, but the lighthouse was still all so new and surreal, and being able to lock eyes with Daryl from across camp had thus far been Beth's safety blanket of sorts. Despite having her sister beside her, Beth still couldn't wait until Daryl returned.

After the three women had made decent progress weeding in the garden, they began to disperse. Anna made her way up onto the porch to do some reading, Tara sought out Rosita to play a game of cards, and Maggie had wandered off in search of Glenn. Beth stretched and scanned the yard, spotting Rowena hunched over a wash basin scrubbing some clothing on a washboard. Beth made her way toward the woman, who looked up and flashed her a friendly smile when she saw her approaching.

"Want some help with that?" Beth offered.

Rowena shook her head. "It's kind of you to offer, but I'm on my last shirt."

Beth nodded and hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to Rowena.

"I saw you earlier on the beach. Doing . . . uh, what's it called again? Maggie told me, but I can't remember."

"Reiki," Rowena replied with a soft smile. "I've been practicing for almost ten years now. I perform it on myself daily, and on others as they need it."

"So it's like healing, right? That's what Maggie said."

"Yes. Simply speaking, Reiki is spiritual healing energy. Every one of us has a life force energy, and sometimes that energy gets out of balance. Reiki channels that energy and balances it out. When you are balanced, your body is able to heal itself more quickly, your mind is clearer, and your emotions are more stable. In times like this, keeping your energy balanced is absolutely essential."

Beth nodded in understanding.

"I've always thought that your state of mind has a big impact on your health," she said. "My mother always believed that, too. I was actually just trying to explain that to Daryl a few days ago, after I got bit . . ." she trailed off, still a little unsure how Rowena felt about the bite. Her sister, Lily, seemed suspicious of it, but Rowena hadn't shown any distaste thus far.

"You and your mother are absolutely right," Rowena said. "A person's mindset has a lot of sway over physical wellbeing. You'd be surprised how powerful the human mind really is when it comes to affecting the physical world."

Beth nodded vigorously in agreement. "Until very recently, Daryl was skeptical that I wouldn't get sick. From the bite, I mean. But after a few days had passed and I still had no symptoms, I started believing that I wouldn't get sick. We found a library and I did a ton of research on infectious diseases and immunity, which only furthered that belief. It was hard trying to make him understand that his skepticism was actually harming me, that I needed him to be positive so that I could stay that way."

Rowena smiled, her eyes full of knowing. "You and I may be very similar creatures," she said. She glanced down at Beth's scabbed-over wound. "If you're willing, I could perform Reiki on you, to speed up your healing. And not only that; it really soothes the mind. I'm sure you are reeling from all that's happened in recent months, and it would be good for your mind and body to have some positive energy coursing through you."

"Yeah," Beth agreed. "I think that sounds nice."

Rowena smiled again and stood from the wash basin. She quickly hung her last article of clothing on the clothesline nearby and jerked her head toward the fence.

"Let's go out on the beach," she said. "Before the world went to shit, I used to listen to meditation music while I did Reiki. But now, the ocean is what I use to keep me grounded. And the sand and the waves will also be more relaxing for you."

"Okay," Beth nodded. She stood and followed Rowena to the pulley system at the back of the fence where they tugged open the fence and made their way out onto the beach. They walked down the beach until they were far enough away that the sounds of the camp wouldn't be distracting, but they would still be able to get back to camp quickly if need be.

"Just lie down on your back and get comfortable," Rowena said.

Beth did as she was told and watched as Rowena closed her eyes and held her hands out in front of her. Rowena traced several symbols in the air and turned to repeat the movements in each direction. She then placed her hands together in front of her chest and bowed her head as if in prayer. Beth settled herself into the sand to get more comfortable and smiled as Rowena lifted her head.

"What do I need to do?" Beth asked.

"Nothing," Rowena shrugged. "Just relax. You could even fall asleep if you wanted. There's no wrong way to receive Reiki."

Beth nodded and closed her eyes, feeling a little awkward. She felt Rowena's hands hovering above her face, and she tried to focus on the even sound of the tide washing ashore and the steadiness of her breathing. It was strange at first, but soon Beth found herself lulled into a near dreamlike state, and she hardly noticed whenever Rowena's hands would move to hover above a different location on her body. Beth allowed herself to daydream about happy memories, letting her mind take her wherever it pleased. The steady sound of the waves on the shore was the only thing keeping her tethered to reality, and she enjoyed the floating, dreamlike sensation she was experiencing. The troubles and horrors that existed just a few miles inland seemed to disappear, leaving Beth in a blissful state that felt as though it were in between consciousness and sleep. And Beth wasn't sure how long into the session it happened, but with a shuddering sigh, Beth felt herself closing a mental door on all the troubles she had experienced in recent months since the fall of the prison. Beth had always been good at focusing on the positive and looking to the future, but in that moment, it felt so good to just _let go._

* * *

When Daryl entered the trailer that evening, Beth couldn't help the wide smile that instantly came to her face. She had been waiting for some alone time with him all day. As much as she loved spending time with the group, whether it be bonding with her sister and brother-in-law or getting to know the other group members, she had been anxiously awaiting the moment when it would be just her and Daryl again.

"Hey you," Beth greeted softly, putting down the book she had been reading by the small kitchen light in the trailer.

"Hey yourself," Daryl replied with a half-smile. "You been hidin' in here long? Couldn't find you after dinner."

Beth shrugged. "Just about half an hour. I was waiting for you."

"Yeah?" Daryl said with a side smile.

"Yeah. I feel like I've hardly seen you today. I'm glad I finally get you all to myself."

Daryl took a step closer and leaned against the side of the booth seat opposite Beth at the table.

"So now that you've got me to yourself, what do you plan to do with me?" he asked in a teasing tone.

Beth grinned and leaned over to pull down the shade on the kitchen window, also quickly scanning the other windows in the trailer to make sure their shades were down. She stood from the table and looked up at Daryl with a mischievous smile.

"I think you'll figure that out pretty quickly," she said.

Daryl gave her a playful smirk, which Beth returned. She took a step closer to him, their chests now touching, and leaned up to press her lips to his. It felt like it had been far too long since she had kissed him, even though it had really only been since that morning. Daryl was like her drug, and Beth was totally and helplessly addicted to him.

Daryl kissed her deeply, indicating that perhaps he too had gone too long without his lips on hers. Beth framed his face with her hands and intensified the kiss. Daryl's tongue slid against hers and she couldn't help the small moan that escaped her. She began backing him toward the small twin bed, and the pair of them nearly stumbled over each other when the backs of Daryl's knees hit the mattress. He fell onto it, taking Beth with him, and she straddled him, instinctively grinding her lower body against his. The groan Daryl emitted only increased the urgency Beth felt in her need to have him, and she began quickly removing his vest and shirt. He copied her actions, and soon their clothing had been flung to the floor, giving Beth the skin-on-skin contact she had been craving all day long.

Daryl's hands moved between them in an effort to line himself up with Beth's already wet entrance, but she seized his hands and pressed them back down on the bed. Daryl growled in frustration.

"Not this game again," he groaned, and Beth giggled a bit, knowing how hard it was for him to surrender control to her.

She leaned down and began peppering his neck with short, open-mouthed kisses, trailing her way down his chest. She scooted backward and continued her journey down his abdomen until she hovered over his cock, which twitched in anticipation. She grinned and bent down to give him one slow, long lick from base to tip, stopping momentarily to pull the head into her mouth through her lips and sucking him briefly before sliding her mouth down his shaft and taking as much of him as she could in her mouth. Daryl groaned aloud and Beth relished the sound as she slowly bobbed her head over his length a few times before withdrawing and sitting up.

"What're you doin'?" Daryl asked hoarsely as he noticed Beth reaching into the drawer where they had stashed the vibrators.

"I want to try something," she said, and Daryl shook his head and sat up a little.

"You are not touchin' me with that thing."

Beth laughed. "Relax. I won't touch you with it directly. But I think you'll enjoy it."

"You're makin' me worried," Daryl said uneasily, and Beth laughed again.

"Just trust me. I want to try a little something Maggie told me about. It's nothing weird, I promise."

Daryl eyed her warily, but sank back down on the bed, his eyes darting between Beth's gaze and the vibrator she held in her hand. Beth felt a rush of excitement as she turned the toy on and set it to a pulsating pattern. Trying new things was always exciting for her, but being able to make Daryl feel good was even more exciting.

Beth knelt closer to Daryl's still-erect cock and gave the tip a few teasing sucks before she pressed the vibrator to the top of her throat, keeping it tucked firmly into the spot where her neck met her chin. She grasped Daryl's cock in her free hand and slowly returned her mouth to the head. Daryl drew in a sharp breath as her mouth enveloped him, and she glanced up and watched his face, eager to gauge his reaction. She swirled her tongue around the head a few times before slowly taking more of him into her mouth, keeping the vibrator firmly in place at her throat.

"Oh, fuck," Daryl groaned, and Beth had to fight the urge to grin around him. She began slowly bobbing her head, running her tongue along the underside of his cock each time she brought her head back up. Daryl's hands fisted into the blankets and his eyes screwed shut, and Beth felt proud that she was able to give him such pleasure. She brought her mouth back up to the head and moved the vibrator to rest firmly against the side of her cheek while she swirled her tongue around his tip and gave it several firm sucks, earning more groans of pleasure from Daryl. Beth moved the toy back to its place at her throat as she took his shaft in her mouth again, and soon Daryl's breathing became heavy and labored.

"Beth—" he cried out seconds before Beth felt the telltale tightening that signified his imminent release. She switched off the vibrator and swallowed everything he had. When she was finished, she glanced up at him triumphantly and watched him catch his breath.

"What the—where did you—Maggie taught you that?" Daryl spluttered, and Beth laughed.

"Yup. When she found out about the vibrators, she couldn't resist giving me advice."

"Your sister is a dirty whore," Daryl panted in a teasing tone. "And thank god for that."

Beth didn't have time to react before Daryl sat up quickly and grabbed her by the waist, flipping her onto her back and pinning her there with his hips. Her heart rate immediately sped up and she throbbed between her legs at the sight of him hovering over her, his pupils blown wide and his expression indicating that she was in for it. He reached for the discarded vibrator and sat up to scoot down the bed.

"And now it's your turn," he growled lowly, spreading her legs by her knees and pressing them to the bed to expose her fully to him.

Daryl switched on the vibrator and immediately pressed it firmly against Beth's clit, and she bucked her hips a bit as soon as the vibrations touched her. Daryl kept the toy firmly in place and began to slowly rotate it around her sensitive bud. Beth was already extremely aroused, and she knew it wouldn't take long for her to climax. She leaned her head back against the bed and closed her eyes, biting her lip in an attempt to not make too much noise.

Her attempt to stay quiet didn't last long however. Soon she felt two of Daryl's fingers being thrust inside her, and she cried out from surprise and pleasure. He kept the vibrator pressed against her clit as he fucked her with his fingers, curling them toward her stomach with each stroke and making her wetter than she thought possible. She then felt the tickle of his long hair as he knelt down between her legs, and his tongue delivered a slow, steady swipe over the length of her slit. Daryl placed her legs over his shoulders and wasted no time in thrusting his tongue inside her, the vibrator still circling her sensitive clit. Beth moaned loudly and quickly grabbed a nearby pillow to try to muffle the sounds of her pleasure as Daryl fucked her with his tongue. He scraped his teeth along her labia and lightly tugged on them, which, in combination with the vibrations, was enough to send her to her peak. Dizziness overcame her as her body shook from the intensity of the orgasm, her cries of pleasure swallowed by the pillow she held over her mouth. Daryl turned off the vibrator and pressed his tongue firmly against her as she rode out her climax. As the waves of pleasure subsided, Beth's ears were ringing, and she tossed the pillow aside to stare down at her lover incredulously.

Daryl grinned up at her and climbed back up on the bed, settling himself between Beth's still-spread legs. He was hard again, and Beth hadn't even recovered from her orgasm when he drove himself deep inside her. Beth cried out, the pillow discarded, and bit into his shoulder as he began thrusting into her hard and fast. She gave herself over to the delicious combination of pain and pleasure she was feeling from his ruthless, deep thrusts, completely disregarding how thin the walls of the trailer were. She felt almost euphoric, high from the pleasure he was giving her, and she never wanted it to end.

Beth felt herself growing closer to orgasm with each snap of Daryl's hips, and it seemed like almost no time at all before she was falling over the precipice of her climax, her muscles clenching around him and her nails digging into his back. Daryl followed soon after and just barely managed to pull out before spilling himself on her stomach. Both of them panted for breath, only now becoming aware of how loud they had likely been, but neither of them really caring. Daryl fell onto the bed next to Beth, and despite how warm and sweaty they had become, he reached a hand around her waist and tugged her against him.

"I love you so fucking much," he murmured hoarsely.

"I love you too," Beth replied softly, and she honestly felt that there was no truer statement in the world.

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**Side note: If anyone is curious about Reiki, feel free to message me with questions! Reiki literally changed my life. I'm a level II practitioner, and I couldn't recommend Reiki enough.**

**Also, for those of you who aren't aware, I have published "Bombs Away" (my WWII-era Bethyl AU that I mentioned a few chapters ago). I'll be posting chapter 4 of that story today. Now that this story is almost complete, I can't wait to be able to devote all my writing energy to my two historical AUs! :)**


	40. Epilogue

**Well, here it is! The final chapter. This is just a short epilogue to wrap things up.**

**Thank you all SO much for your support for this story. I can't even put into words how much it means to me. I hope you'll give my historical AUs a shot as well. :)**

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**Epilogue**

**3 Months Later**

Beth fastened a freshly washed shirt to the clothesline, the ocean breeze already toying with it and sending it flapping in the wind. She sat back down in front of the wash basin and grabbed another article of clothing to begin scrubbing against the wash board. Laundry may not have been Beth's favorite chore, as it often left the skin on her hands dry and cracked, but the monotonous task always gave her time to think while she worked.

She let her eyes wander around the camp now as she scrubbed, taking in the sight of the other group members doing various tasks and chores around the camp. Rosita was on watch at the top of the lighthouse, her vigilant eyes constantly scanning the horizon with her back to the ocean, even though the camp had thus far never had to deal with more than a few walkers at once, and no other living souls had yet to find their camp. Beth's ears picked up bits and pieces of the conversation among Anna, Tara, and Eugene in the garden, and she grinned as she realized they were discussing the ideal vampire (a discussion likely brought about by Beth's Anne Rice books that had been making their way around the camp). From what she could pick up from her distance across the yard, Anna was arguing in favor of the Twilight vampires, while Eugene was relentlessly picking apart the vampires' weaknesses. She could see Tara with her head hung low in laughter as the debate raged on, and Beth almost contemplated abandoning her current chore to go join in. But she just shook her head and continued gazing around camp, her hands busily scrubbing the pair of jeans she had in the wash basin in front of her.

Rowena and Lily were seated around the cook fire preparing lunch. The sisters were engaged in quiet conversation together, and it warmed Beth to see Lily throw her head back and laugh at something Rowena had said. Lily was often quiet and reserved, and seeing her laugh was a rare thing. It wasn't that Lily wasn't friendly or happy, for after she had overcome her suspicion of Beth's now-scarred wound, she had been quick to warm up to her, but it still took a lot to make the woman display the level of joy her free-spirited sister often did.

Beth's eyes wandered then up to the porch, where Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, and Geoff were engaged in the effort to fashion storm shutters out of sheet metal they had salvaged from a nearby town. According to Rowena, hurricane season in Florida would be starting in just a few short months, and the group had to be prepared should a storm come their way. The plan was to create strong metal shutters for all the building's windows that could be pulled across each window on a sliding bar of sorts, enabling them to board up their shelter at a moment's notice if need be. Without the convenience of Doppler radar, a storm could approach with little warning, and the sliding shutters would be essential for last-minute preparations.

Beth watched as Glenn put down his tools to stand and stretch. He wandered over to where Maggie was working and slipped his hands around her from behind, his hands immediately going to rest on his wife's stomach. Beth stifled a grin at the sight; Maggie had revealed to Beth just that morning that she was pregnant, but she and Glenn had yet to announce it to the rest of the group. They would make their announcement that night over dinner. Beth was absolutely ecstatic over the news. She knew there were risks to having a baby in this world, especially without a doctor at their camp, but she also knew that they would manage. They had plenty of time to research and prepare, and Beth felt that there was hardly a safer place to raise a child at the end of the world. The camp at the lighthouse felt even safer than the prison, and Beth absolutely could not wait to be an aunt.

The sound of Rosita's whistle from the lighthouse suddenly interrupted her thoughts, and Beth allowed herself to grin widely as Abraham jogged to the fence gate, pulling it open to allow Daryl back inside. He had his crossbow slung across his back and several dead rabbits tied to a rope that was slung over his shoulder. Beth's heart thumped a bit as she observed the sheen of sweat on his skin, his toned arms flexing just slightly as he gripped the strap of his crossbow. His icy blue eyes scanned the camp, clearly seeking Beth, and he immediately began walking toward her as soon as his eyes found her.

"Looks like you had a decent hunt today," Beth commented as Daryl approached. He nodded and sat down beside her, unsheathing his hunting knife to begin skinning and gutting his kills.

"Sorta," he grunted. "Lots of little ones."

Beth nodded and continued scrubbing, already feeling more at peace now that Daryl was sitting next to her. Even when he was only gone for a few hours, she found that she missed him, and she was always relieved when he returned. Daryl began working on the rabbits next to her, neither of them speaking, but Beth still couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across her face. Even though they had been at the lighthouse for three months, Beth still sometimes couldn't believe that it was real. If she closed her eyes, she could easily imagine that she was hanging laundry in the backyard of a suburban house, and that the sounds of the conversations around the camp were from neighbors' yards just over the perfect picket fence. But in all honesty, Beth didn't want to imagine such a life. She didn't need to. The life they had here at the lighthouse was just perfect the way it was, and Beth didn't want it any other way.

"What're you smilin' about?" Daryl asked suddenly, and she glanced at him and shrugged.

"Just happy," she said.

He nodded and studied her through the hair that always hung in his eyes, and a small smile began to find its way to his mouth as well.

"Me too," he said simply, and Beth's smile widened.

They had food, shelter, protection, and a soon-to-be growing family. And most importantly, they had each other, which had always been more than enough. They were alive, and they weren't just surviving. In fact, they weren't just living either. They were _thriving._

Beth held Daryl's gaze for several long moments, blue eyes meeting blue and conveying a silent understanding that it seemed life couldn't get any better. It didn't matter that the world had ended, because Beth couldn't remember a time when she had ever been happier. And neither could Daryl.

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**The end! Thank you so much for reading! You are all amazing!**


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